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THE MAID MARVELLOUS 
JEANNE DARG 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
THE FAIRY LATCHKEY 
THE TWINS OF TUMBLEDOWNDREARY 




BEFORE HER JUDGES 



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MAID 



THE- 
MAI2VCLL0U5 



Jeanne- darc 






MAGDALENE- HORSPALL 



ULU5TRATED-yrBY-5TEPHEI1-REIDRBA- 



•NEW-YORK- 

DODD- y^EAD- AND- COnPANY- 1916 






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P'/inicd in Great Britain 
Ijl TumbttU ip' Spears^ Edinburgh 



DEDICATED TO 

V. A. M. T. 

"A faithful friend is the medicine of life. 



CONTENTS 

Part I 
DOMREMY ''i 

Part II 
ORLEANS ....... 25 

Part III 
RHEIMS 62 

Part IV 
ROUEN 91 



va 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

" Before Her Judges "... Frontispiece 

FACING PAGB 

"Time and again the Voices called 

Jeannette " . . . . . . i6 

" ' Allez, et vienne que pourra ' " . . 30 

" She rallied Her Men on the Instant " . 52 

"And bade Her require a Boon of Him" . 78 

" ' Forgive ! ' cried Nicholas Loiseleur " . 126 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 
JEANNE DARG 

Part I 
DOMREMY 

" Look on thy country, look on fertile France, 
And see the cities and the towns defac'd 
By wasting ruin of a cruel foe ! 
As looks the mother on her lowly babe. 
When death doth close his tender dying eyes, 
See, see, the pining malady of France." 

" Henry VL" 

Long ago, five centuries and more, there 
was a man by name Jacques Dare, and his 
wife's name was Isabelle Romee ; they had 
three children, Jacques, Pierre, and Catherine, 
and Hved together in Domremy among the 
hills of the Vosges. Jacques Dare himself, 
a Champagnard, sprang of a stock which 
came from the village of Arc in the Duchy of 
Bar, but Domremy lay in the Duchy of 
Lorraine, hard by the high roads to Paris and 
A I 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

to Aachen, so that it had France upon the 
one side and the Empire on the other, the 
border being an oak wood known as the 
Bois Chesnu. (Note i, p. 23.) Men told 
how in this forest Charlemagne had gone 
a-hunting, and knighted the thousand-year 
old stag, which wore a golden collar round 
its neck. 

Now, in the year of the Incarnation of 
our Lord 1412, there was born a second 
daughter to Jacques and Isabelle Dare, and 
the birth fell at Epiphany-tide, the festival 
of the Three Kings. Truly those three Wise 
Men have been accounted gift-bringers since 
the day they offered gold and spices to the 
Christ-child, yet never had they brought so 
rare a gift to any dwelling as when they 
crossed the threshold of Jacques Dare. In 
later times there went a talk how on the 
birth-night of the Maid of Orleans the red 
cock crew and flapped its wings for joy, 
and the villagers rose up and danced, not 
knowing wherefore. (Note 2, p. 24.) But 

2 



DOMREMY 

these are idle tales ; God works in silence 
and does his alms-deeds secretly, as he has 
bidden us do ours. 

Seven sponsors had the child at her 
christening, while in big swelling words the 
priest bade the devils come out of her, and 
the exorcisms were longer for a girl than for 
a boy, the Church mistrusting women. Thus 
they baptized her, and chose the name of 
Jehanne, after the loved apostle John and 
the seer of visions, yet in Lorraine she was 
always called Jeannette, Jeannette Dare, 
and sometimes Jeannette Romee, that being 
the fashion of the countryside. 

A straggling street by a winding water — 
such was Domremy ; a cabin clumsily roofed 
with stones — such was the house which 
Jeannette had for a home, a poor place 
enough, though men reckoned Jacques Dare 
a prosperous farmer, as prosperity went in 
those hard times. The mothering village 
church stood nearest neighbour, and between 
lay a patch of gaiden, that held all manner 

3 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

of serviceable herbs and a few gnarled orchard 
trees. 

/ Now on the edge of the forest, half a league 
from Domremy, grew a mighty beech-tree, 
the beech of Bourlemont ; a bent witch- 
hazel crouched at the foot, while among a 
copse of wild currant bushes there welled a 
fairy fountain, gurgling and gulping in the 
clutches of the thicket. ) The villagers called 
it La Fontaine aux Bonnes Fees, and the 
tree they called now by this name and now 
by that, I'Arbre Fee de Bourlemont, the 
Ladies* Tree, or the Fair May, for in spring- 
tide, .they were used to say, it looked " as 
fair as lily flower, the branches all drooping 
to the ground." (Note 3. p. 24.) 

Hither had come Pierre de Bourlemont, 
Lord of the Manor, and his wife the Lady 
Beatrice, to lead the rustic revels ; hither, 
so the story ran, came the Lord Pierre secretly 
to tryst at twilight with his fairy love, a wan 
elf maiden in kirtle and cloak leaf-green, a 
crown of goblin gold upon her head, such 

4 



DOMREMY 

as the Gentle People commonly wear. But 
he died the last of his line, did Pierre de 
Bourlemont, so that the cure grew afraid, 
and read mass yearly at the haunted tree. 
Doubtless many a belated wayfarer heard 
eerie breezes harping in the boughs, and 
caught odd glimpses now and again of 
shimmering coronals and wafting greeneries. 
Yet if ever he ventured to take hold, only 
the night wind slipped through his fingers. 

So stood the wizard beech of Bourlemont, 
budding beneath a thousand moons of May, 
and struck deep roots into the forest mould, 
and deeper roots into the minds of men, 
until the fairy peoples were forgotten. We 
have named them by fanciful and varying 
names the wide world over : " Themselves " 
and " Those Without," or the " Kind Folk " 
and the " Gentry," making shift to flatter 
them ; in like manner the villagers of 
Domremy, they knew not what to think, and 
some called them the Fatal Ladies, and 
some Les Bonnes Dames Notre Seigneur ; 

5 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

others said they were the wraiths of lorn 
damsels who had lost their true loves many 
a long year gone, others again that they 
served a druid altar, priestesses of old grey 
heathen times. 

Nevertheless the goodwives bade them to 
all christenings, and set ready for them the 
christening meal in a room beside the 
mother's. (The children of the village came 
often to the tree, to dance and sing their 
roundelays, or lie among the flowering 
currant bushes, feasting on crescent loaves 
and eggs and nuts, while the fountain lisped 
in elfish undertones near by. \ 

Jeannette Dare, she too was of the number, 
a little maid with a low voice and lips rose- 
red as June, and in the laughing circle of her 
playmates she would fashion gay posies and 
garlands, and hang them upon the tree. 
It shaded her at her pastimes, it shaded her 
at her prayers, and indeed it yielded the 
wood at her burning, the poor innocent tree 
that ever wished her well ; for by and by 

6 



DOMREMY 

when the black monks accused her of sorcery, 
they laid to her charge how she had trafficked 
with the fairies. Yet Jeannette, truth to 
say, put no faith in spook or pixie, though 
one of her godmothers made sure of having 
seen them, and told her many an old wife's 
tale of the magical mandrake in its lurking- 
place under the bent witch-hazel. 

From her mother she learnt the Lord's 
Prayer, Creed, and Hail Mary, and to be 
very deft with distaff and needle. She was 
pitiful to the poor, and if a tired traveller 
knocked at the door, would bid him take 
shelter from the wrangle of wind and rain, 
and give him a nook by the hearth, where 
he might sit at his ease and listen to 
the logs, as they cracked first one crisp jest 
and then another. Also she would share 
her supper with him, and make him sleep 
warm in her own bed, though she must needs 
lie stretched upon the floor. And to dumb 
creatures, the feathered and the furred, she 
was compassionate likewise. 

7 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Tradition whispers how on Easter Eve 
the bells in every belfry of wide Christendom 
are loosed and fly to Rome, and the good 
children may fly with them. Surely little 
Jeannette should have gone too, riding on 
the back of a great bronze bell to see the 
catacombs, and Nero's Circus where the 
martyrs died ; for she hearkened eagerly to 
legends of the saints, and tales of the 
wonderful city. 

The chime of the church bell gladdened 
her, and on a day when the sacristan was 
laggard in ringing, she promised him some of 
the wool of her lambs, if only he would be 
more diligent. Often as' she pastured her 
flock in the meadows, and watched the track 
of the fleecy clouds that have the wind to 
their sheep-dog, she kQelt awhile and talked 
with God ; often she gathered wayside flowers 
and carried them to the shrine of our Lady 
of Vermont, which topped a neighbouring 
hill, and here she lingered, praying and 
pondering alone, until the afternoon waned 

8 



DOMREMY 

yellow across the uplands. But of her 
taking the veil, and the vows that are called 
religious, was never mention made ; she had 
too sharp a pity for the world to seek to leave 
it. There were some who twitted her because 
she would use no oaths, saying merely 
" Without fail " ; yet if any fell sick among 
them they ceased mocking, and cried each 
to other, " Let us send for Jeannette Dare, 
since she is a skilful nurse and has more wit 
than most." 

Jeannette, Hauviette, Mengette — of a 
delicate rare morning, still hoary with thick 
dews, one might have seen them wander 
threesome in the fields, running fleet races 
together, or plucking meadowsweet and 
kingcups by the banks of the willow-wetting 
Meuse. At work and at play Hauviette was 
the Maid's close comrade, on which account 
there are those that envy her, though she 
raised no stir in the world, and wedded a 
poor labourer, Gerard of Syonne, near Neuf- 
chateau. As to Mengette, the Maid loved 

9 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

her like a little sister, for her own sister 
Catherine died young. She had yet another 
friend, Isabellette Gerardin, who was a 
married wife already, and Jeannette stood 
sponsor to her baby son. 

Upon a reedy islet in mid-stream, veiled 
by tall poplars and the river mist, mouldered 
the castle of the Sieurs de Bourlemont, 
which fell to ruin after the death of 
the Lord Pierre, and here the villagers 
drove their herds for safety, when the wars 
waxed fierce to the north and west of 
Domremy. The plumed grass nodded in 
the tilting-yard, the ivy leaves fluttered like 
green butterflies about the broken casements, 
and where once the ladies of Bourlemont 
stitched tapestries of gold and silver thread, 
Jeannette the shepherdess grazed her father's 
cattle. They are all gone now ; the knight 
that went a-wooing into Faerie, the little 
vision-haunted peasant girl, and the castle 
by the waterside which did outlast them 
both. 

10 



DOMREMY 

Those were grievous times, and the tale 
is not good teUing. For fear of famine the 
cities closed their gates, the hungry and 
the homeless turned to brigands in the 
woods, and the forest depths became a dead 
men's ground, while on the tower of Domremy 
church a sentinel kept vigi) night and day. 
The land was lean and haggard with war, 
her dry breasts yielding not milk but blood 
only ; the English invaders had lorded it 
in France nigh on a hundred years, and the 
great French nobles were at feud among 
themselves, so that the realm knew never 
any lest from the mad sword-play of the 
Burgundians and the Orleanists. In the 
meanest of hamlets the factions fought each 
other ; Domremy was for Orleans, and Maxey 
for Burgundy, and village boys waged mimic 
battles if they met upon the roads. But 
a morning broke when the Burgundians 
raided Domremy in deathly earnest, and 
the people fled to Neufchateau seeking 
shelter. Thus Jeannette saw with her own 

II 



\ 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

eyes the work of fire and steel, and having 
seen, remembered. 

It happened that Marie of Avignon the 
visionary had come one day to the French 
king's court, where Charles VI sat moody on 
his throne, and told him of her revelations ; 
she dreamt, she said, of men-at-arms and 
weapons, yet these were not for her, but for 
a blessed maid unborn. Also among the 
common people a saying went abroad, how 
France should be desolated by a woman and 
restored by a maid, according to the prophecy 
of Merlin the magician, what time he wove 
his manifold enchantments beneath the mur- 
murous oaks of Broceliande. 

Now the woman that desolated France 
was none other than Isabeau of Bavaria, 
the evil wife of the sixth Charles, the evil 
mother of his heir the Dauphin. The king, 
you must know, was pitiably mad, therefore 
Queen Isabeau did as she listed, revelling 
amongst her favourites while her husband 
pined in a sick frenzy, and at the Palais de 

12 



DOMREMY 

Saint Paul the royal children went in rags 
like beggars. Further, she and the false 
Dukes of Burgundy made common cause with 
the foreign islanders. By the dastard treaty of 
Troyes she gave her daughter, Katharine the 
Fair, to Harry V of England for his bride, 
and sold the French crown to his heirs, de- 
spoiling her own son. A boy was born of 
the marriage, the weakling cub of the lion 
of Agincourt, and to that infant cradled at 
Windsor, and crowned with his mother's 
bracelet, it is said, did traitrous French- 
men yield the Valois birthright. His 
proved a lamentable legacy, God knows, 
since the victories of Jeanne Dare lost him 
the kingdom, and all he lived to inherit was 
the curse of madness in his mother's blood. 

As for the breach between Orleans and 
Burgundy, it lasted two generations, like 
the thorny strife of the White and the Red 
Rose, and this was the way of it. John the 
Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, had murdered 
Louis, Duke of Orleans ; and Louis' kinsman, 

13 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

the Comte d'Armagnac, espoused the quarrel, 
which is why the Orleanist party went by the 
name of Armagnacs thenceforward. The 
Burgundians, and the north country along 
with them, swore fealty to Henry VI, the 
little King of England, but the Armagnacs, 
and the south, save for Gascony, acknow- 
ledged Charles VI and his son after him. 
(Note 4, p. 24.) 

While the Dauphin was still a boy they 
smuggled him out of Paris, one hag-ridden 
night when the streets ran red with massacre, 
and since that day he lurked, a puppet prince, 
beyond the severing Loire. From castle to 
castle he journeyed through years of fugitive 
unrest, and though the mad monarch slept 
among his forbears, there was many a man of 
the Armagnacs to whom Charles VII remained 
the " Dauphin " still ; he might be king by 
right, yet king he would never be in deed, 
until he was crowned and anointed in the 
cathedral church of Rheims. But Rheims 
lay north of the Loire. 

14 



DOMREMY 

Meanwhile the sleepless vengeance of the 
Orleanists bided its time, and at length an 
hour of reckoning came ; John the Fearless 
was stabbed to his death on Montereau 
bridge, and Philip of Burgundy, the son of 
John, took up the blood feud. CXruly the 
days were evil, days of which the prophet 
might well have said that a deliverer was 
looked for " more than gold, even a man than 
the precious wedge of Ophir." But no man 
offered himself — only a young girl, used to 
minding sheep in the lush water meadows of 
the upper Meuse. 

Jeannette was twelve years old when first 
she heard her Voices. She stood at midday 
in the trim herb garden among the moss- 
grown apple trees, and suddenly upon her 
right, towards the gloaming sanctuary of 
the church, where tricksy shadows sported 
on the graves, there shone a brightness 
brighter than the sun, and a voice spoke 
with her, bidding her go into France. 

Time and again the Voices called Jeannette, 
15 



^ 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

twice or thrice weekly. Moreover, the arch- 
angel of God, Michael the dragon-slayer, 
appeared to her in vision, with cohorts of 
angels round about him. He told her of the 
heavenly pity for the fair realm of France, 
and how she must have the Dauphin anointed 
and crowned at Rheims ; he bade her be a 
good child, loving the Lord's service, and 
following always the counsel of the blessed 
Catherine and the blessed Margaret, whom 
he would send to guide her. 

Saint Catherine, so the cure taught, was 
patron of French prisoners ; the village 
church at Maxey stood to her praise, and 
her name remained dear to Jeannette for the 
sake of the little sister dead and gone ; 
but Saint Margaret, folks said, was a young 
shepherdess, patron of those who labour in 
the fields. As to Saint Michael, everybody 
knows that he is the angel of the Judgment, 
and will weigh the souls of all men in his 
scales. Greatly honoured was he in Bar and 
in Lorraine, the champion of the French, 

i6 




" TIME AND AGAIN THE VOICES CALLED JEANNETTE " 



HMmMmK-kv-t^MmMMLf^ 



n.«.i'-i-m«^^»iit...»t.v--TTing» 



DOMREMY 

while one Saint George, reported to have 
slain a dragon likewise, fought on the part 
of the English. 

Yet of the visions Jeannette said no word 
to any. Who has not seen another maid, 
in old dark altar-pieces, by an embroidery 
frame or lilied well, giving ear to the message 
of her angel ? But of the strange lone 
glories which befell her she spoke to none, 
pondering them in her heart. Those were 
discreet and silent souls, Mary of Galilee 
and Jeannette of Lorraine.; Yet her very 
silence was afterwards turned to her re- 
proach, since she grievously erred, declared 
her judges, in that she did not reveal the 
apparitions to a priest. 

Now two years before she went from 
Domremy her father had a dream, and 
throughout his dream he saw her in man's 
dress and leading men-at-arms. On this he 
was angry, and told her brothers that should 
it come to pass they were to drown her, or 
truly he would do it himself, sooner than be 
B 17 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

dishonoured by his daughter. Whence we 
know him for a poor crook-tempered fool, 
afraid of the wagging of his neighbours' 
tongues rather than of a whole Burgundian 
army. 

During the May time when Jeannette was 
sixteen, her Voices began to counsel her 
more plainly. " Go," said they, " to Robert 
de Baudricourt, captain of Vaucouleurs, and 
ask of him an escort of soldiers which shall 
take you to the Dauphin." She was a 
modest maid, with no desire to make talk 
nor mix herself in men's matters, neverthe- 
less she might not disobey. Now it fortun- 
ately fared that there lived near by at Little 
Burey a kindly fellow named Durand Lassois, 
her mother's kinsman ; to him she went, 
and begged him to accompany her, and on 
Ascension Thursday in mid-May they took 
the road towards Vaucouleurs. 

It was no hard matter to get an audience 
with the captain, but when the Maid re- 
quired an escort that should bring her to 

i8 



DOMREMY 

the Dauphin, he laughed long and boister- 
ously, bidding Lassois take her home and 
beat her, for she was assuredly mad. Yet 
Jeannette continued undismayed. " Tell the 
Dauphin to guard himself," said she, " and 
not offer battle to his enemies, since the 
Lord shall send him succour about mid- 
Lent." And so saying she went her ways 
again, she and her good kinsman. As to 
Robert de Baudricourt, he made exceedingly 
merry with his garrison, and little guessed 
how but for this same shepherd lass, his 
name were clean forgotten in the world. 

From that day onward Jeannette spoke 
freely of her mission, which was to save 
France and restore the blood royal, also of 
the heavenly spirits who had visited her, 
and these she called her Counsel, or her 
Brothers of Paradise. " There is a maid," 
quoth she, " between Coussy and Vaucou- 
leurs, that will have the Dauphin hallowed 
to king before a year is out." Yet her 
comrades only laughed at her ; she had 

19 



A 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

loitered after dusk, they said, in the uncanny 
Bois Chesnu, and gotten her mission from 
the Small People who ride the air on broom- 
sticks. 

To the lone marches of Lorraine there 
came but tardy rumours of the world beyond 
the Vosges, and never any news that were 
glad hearing ; at times a pilgrim or a pedlar 
passed, and from such as these the country 
folk heard tell how the English had be- 
leaguered the good town of Orleans upon the 
River Loire. In every tavern and by every 
fireside ran talk of the siege, and of nothing 
save the siege, since Orleans was the gateway 
to the south, and if Orleans were lost the 
Loire was lost, and all France south of the 
Loire. But to Jeannette Dare as she folded 
her flock, or sat by her spinning-wheel, 
came the voice of the archangel, Michael 
the great fighter. " Raise the siege," it 
said, " which is before Orleans." To whom 
she replied, *' Messire, I am a simple, un- 
taught girl ; how can these things be ? *' 

20 



DOMREMY 

And the angel answered, " Va, va, fille de 
De, je serai a ton aide." (Note 5, p. 24.) 

So then it was agreed between the Maid 
and Durand Lassois that he should fetch 
her away to Little Burey, from whence she 
might go once more to Vaucouleurs. His 
wife, as it chanced, had fallen sick, and lay 
in need of nursing, and though Jeannette 
was loath to gain her end by stealth, yet 
she must needs depart upon some pretext, 
or Jacques Dare would thwart her at the 
outset. " But I know," said she, and what 
she said came true, " that afterwards he will 
give me his blessing, and that my brothers 
will join me." Moreover time pressed, for 
the siege had endured three months already. 

It was the 6th of January, Jeannette's 
birthday, and she was seventeen. A wintry 
dawn rose livid in the east as she and Lassois 
started on their way, surely the strangest 
faring forth in story, a thing unreal, fan- 
tastic, like that adventurous flitting of the 
nursery rhyme"" 

21 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

" How many miles to Babylon ? 
Three score and ten. 
Can I get there by candle-light ? 
Yes, and back again." 

Yet though Jeanne Dare set out by candle- 
light, she never came back again. 

Little Mengette was early astir, for the 
Maid had warned her of her going, and years 
hence, when she was little Mengette no 
longer, but the wife of Jean Joyart and a 
woman grown, she would still call to mind 
that parting, and her playmate's stifled cry, 
" Farewell, and may God bless you ! " Yet 
all this time Hauviette was sleeping soundly. 
The Maid could meet the stare of lounging 
courtiers, and the volley of cannon and cross- 
bow, and a day broke when she set eyes upon 
the rack unmoved, but just one thing not 
even she could face, and that was the leave- 
taking from her girlhood's friend. 

Now a certain labourer had his cottage 
on the outskirts of the village, and in the 
great world's history he is notable for this 
alone — he was the last in Domremy who 

22 



DOMREMY 

heard the Maid pass by. The birds were 
cheeping drowsily, the treetops dripped and 
shivered in the bleak wind of dawning, and 
from Maxey and from Greux the church belh 
tinkled for the high festival of Christ's 
Epiphany, when there came a sound of steps 
along the road, and a voice that called, 
" Adieu ! I go to Vaucouleurs." 

Turn then, Jeannette, and take your 
parting look. I know that you will draw 
battalions after you as the moon draws the 
tides, that you will stand in bright apparel at 
the right hand of princes, and in a pleasant 
land where thorns are not, the martyrs and 
the saints shall make you welcome. All these 
things shall be yours, but the loved roofs of 
Domremy never any more. 

NOTES TO PART I 

Note I, p. 2. — Thus, farther south, the fishers of Avignon 
still use the words " Empire " and " Royaume " to dis- 
tinguish the banks of the Rhone. The Dukes of Lorraine, 
nominally vassals of the French kings, were really inde- 
pendent, and very troublesome to their over-lords in time 

23 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

of peace, though loyal enough at need, as in the battles 
of Cre9y and Agincourt. Lorraine did not form part of 
France until 1738. 

Note 2, p. 2. — From a letter by Messire Percival 
Boulainvilliers to the Duke of Milan. 

Note 3, p. 4. — See evidence of Domremy witnesses at 
the Trial of Rehabilitation, 1456. 

Note 4, p. 14. — The Kings of England were hereditary 
Dukes of Gascony. 

Note 5, p. 21. — D^ — old French for Dieu. 



24 



Part II 
ORLEANS 

" Hear, O ye kings ; give ear, O ye princes ; I, even I, 
will sing unto the Lord ; I will sing praise to the Lord God 
of Israel. . . . The inhabitants of the villages ceased, 
they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I 
arose a mother in Israel. . . . They that are delivered 
from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, 
there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, 
even the righteous acts towards the inhabitants of his 
villages in Israel ; then shall the people of the Lord go down 
to the gates. Awake, awake, Deborah -. awake, awake, 
utter a song : arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, 
thou son of Abinoam. Then he made him that remaineth 
to have dominion over the nobles among the people : the 
Lord made me have dominion over the mighty." 

Judges v. 

Now from Twelfth Night to Shrove-tide 
the Maid tarried at Little Burey, nursing 
Lassois' wife, and when she and her kinsman 
reached Vaucouleurs, it was turned February 
already. He lodged her in the house of one 
Leroyer, a wheelwright, and the same day 

25 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

she parleyed with the captain : " And I 
will come to you," said she, " until you give 
me the men-at-arms, for so my Lord has 
bidden me, and I cannot disobey." 

On this Robert de Baudricourt was troubled 
in mind, and immediately he sent a priest 
to exorcise her, the better to know whether 
she were inspired of God, or a sorceress 
leagued with the devil. But the foolish 
mummery was unavailing, and offended her 
to no purpose. 

Often one might have seen her in her worn 
red dress, praying in the crypt of Saint 
Mary's church on the hill above the town, 
and truly she had need to pray for patience 
while the halting days limped by. " The 
time weighs heavy on me," she would say, 
" as upon a woman drawing near her delivery, 
and I long to be gone." But in the mean 
season she busied herself about the house, 
and all spoke well of her : "I could wish," 
quoth one, " that I had a daughter good 
as she." 

26 



ORLEANS 

X - 

The rumour of the holy Maid of Vaucou- 
leurs spread rapidly to Nancy, chief city of 
Lorraine, where the Duke of Lorraine was 
lying very sick, and he sent for Jeannette 
to cure him. She came indeed, and bade him 
mend his life and promised him her prayers, 
but working his cure she said was beyond her 
power, as she did not profess to do miracles. 
And the old rake gave her a present of a 
fine horse, bearing her no grudge for her 
plain speaking. 

Now Chinon, where the Dauphin was 
holding his court, lay distant from Vaucou- 
leurs a hundred and fifty leagues, yet when 
Maitre Leroyer warned her of the perils of the 
road, she answered him serenely : "I fear 
them not, for I have God with me, who will 
prepare my way to the Lord Dauphin. 
Hereunto was I born.'' 

Towards the middle of the month Jeannette 
went again to the captain. " In God's name, 
Robert de Baudricourt," she cried, " you 
are too slow, and have wrought great injury 

27 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

thereby. This day the Dauphin's cause has 
lost a battle, and it will suffer further hurt 
unless you bring me to him speedily." And 
herein she told him the simple truth, but 
whether or not she had the second sight, let 
fools judge, since it is more than the wisest 
can say. (Note 6, p. 59.) 

The captain was much perplexed, and 
sent to inquire into the matter, and presently, 
sure enough, tidings reached him of the 
distant fight at Rouvray, called the battle 
of the Herrings. The besiegers of Orleans 
must needs have fish for Lent, and a supply 
of herrings was already on the road when a 
French force stopped the convoy, and an 
encounter followed at Rouvray in which 
the English got the best of it. Nor was 
this anything new, since the French had 
gained no victories in the memory of living 
man ; at the sound of the English " Hurrah " 
they would run like hares, and nurses scared 
their nurslings with the names of Falstaff 
and De la Pole and Talbot. 

28 



ORLEANS 

Now when Robert de Baudricourt found 
that Jeannette had spoken truly, he went 
straight to the house of the wheelwright, 
and promised her the escort she required ; 
moreover he laid his own broadsword between 
her hands, giving her Godspeed in these 
words, " Allez, et vienne que pourra." And 
the Maid set out for Chinon the same night. 

Her following was but twenty-five in ^ 
number, soldiers and rustics (among them 
her brothers, Jacques and Pierre), with the 
Chevalier Jean de Metz, and Bertrand 
de Poulangy his esquire. These at the 
first would scarce be seated in her presence, 
though she was a farmer's daughter and they 
well-born, yet Jeannette allowed no ceremony, 
and they soon became fast friends. As for 
herself and young Bertrand, they were boy 
and girl together and made very merry. The 
company journeyed at night by reason of 
the Burgundians, and during the day-time 
her two comrades lay fully armed beside her, 
and guarded her when she slept. " Always 

29 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

she seemed as good," quoth Bertrand, " as 
if she had been a saint." Nor was there talk 
of love between them, for she resolved to 
bide unwed the while her mission lasted, not 
in a spirit of asceticism or vain merit- 
mongering, but rather in the wisdom of the 
Scripture : "No man that warreth entangleth 
himself with the affairs of this life." Her 
judges questioned her often on the matter, 
to whom she said plainly she was vowed 
a maiden only so long as it should please 
God, nor was she fearful of losing her peace 
of mind or the comfort of her Counsel, were 
she to marry when her work was done. How 
far, how very far, Jeanne Dare, did you 
outstrip your times ! 

After eleven days the Maid reached Chinon ; 
her eyes took in the curve of stranger hills, 
her ears the unwonted sound of a new 
name, for, " In my own country they called 
me Jeannette, but since I came into France 
I am called Jeanne." So she herself bears 
witness, and it is a homesick witness surely. 

30 




'ALLEZ, ET VIENNE QUE POURRA 



ORLEANS 

" Saviour of the realm," " Page of Christ," 
"Victory's sweetheart" — such were the 
titles men gave her, and the old familiar 
name was crowded out. 

She immediately sought audience of the 
Dauphin, having sent word from Fierbois of 
her approach. Yet Charles declined to see 
her ; he was very well amused with his 
greyhounds and his troubadours, and his 
two worthless favourites, the Sieur de la 
Tremouille and the Archbishop of Rheims, 
and hated to be pestered by affairs of State. 
Already he had received ambassadors from 
Orleans, which was bad enough, seeing they 
told him roundly how it stood not with his 
honour to leave his faithful city to her fate. 
This was unreasonable talk as well as uncivil, 
since what could a man do who had nothing 
in his treasury save forty francs, and no 
standing army save his own bodyguard, 
and that unpaid ? 

Yet luckily for many a quailing heart 
through the length and breadth of the 

31 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Orleanais, the Dauphin was better matched 
than he deserved, with Marie of Anjou, 
whereby he had gained not merely a winsome 
wife, but a mighty shrewd woman to his 
mother-in-law, Yolande Queen of Sicily and 
Duchess of Touraine. This high lady took 
matters in hand, since to her thinking drown- 
ing men must catch at straws, and Messire 
the Dauphin knew not an hour's peace until 
he promised to give the Maid a hearing. 

So de Metz and de Poulangy brought her one 
day into the banqueting hall, to as strange a 
gathering as ever a March sun lightened or 
March winds noised abroad. There was the 
whole court assembled, fops and coxcombs 
mostly — Mylords spiritual that had forgotten 
how to pray, Mylords temporal that had 
forgotten how to fight, and ladies that had 
forgotten other things ; while over against 
them stood a simple maid, in tunic and hose 
of grey homespun, her dark hair taille en 
rond. The Dauphin lounged at ease among 
his retinue, bearing neither coronet nor 

32 



ORLEANS 

sceptre, nor any token which might blab 
of sovereignty, yet if he hereby sought to 
trick her, his poor jest came to nothing, 
since she wavered never a whit, but singled 
him out on the instant. 

" The Lord give you long life, gentle 
Dauphin," quoth she, and went and knelt 
before him ; "I am come at God's command 
to bring you to your good city of Rheims 
for your crowning and sacring, that you may 
be vassal of the King of Heaven who is King 
of France. I pray you grant me men-at- 
arms, and hasten my appointed work ; so 
will I raise the siege of Orleans, and break 
the English power." 

Charles greeted her kind and courtly, and 
.led her to a window in an alcove, and there 
they stood a while and talked apart. Then he 
asked of her a sign in proof of her mission, 
and got a surer proof than ever he reckoned 
on. For the sins of Queen Isabeau his mother 
weighed heavy upon him from a boy, as 
well they might, insomuch that he ques- 
c 33 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

tioned the lawfulness of his birth and his 
right to the crown of his ancestors. But 
these misgivings he had shared with none, 
only in the shut places of his heart had 
he prayed God to make his doubts an end. 
And now Jeanne told him of his doubt and 
of his prayer, and bade him take comfort, 
since he was indeed of the blood royal, a Valois 
king-begotten. The on-lookers bore witness 
that the Dauphin seemed moved out of 
measure, and some guessed one thing and 
some another, and there was gossip and to 
spare touching " the king's secret/' .and the 
sign which the Maid had given him ; but 
the answer to the riddle is as I have said, and 
all men came to know it by and by. 

To-day the castle of Chinon for the more 
part lies a ruin, yet in the banqueting hall 
one may still trace, far up and here and 
there, the deep mullions of the windows 
with the narrow window-seats, and a carven 
chimney stone cold these many years. None 
treads now where the Maid once trod, for 

34 



ORLEANS 

only the winds can find a footing upon that 
airy floor, to dance their boisterous reels in 
the void spaces, while the sun holds a torch 
to their revelry, or the sleep-walking moon 
gropes her way along the battlements, 

Jeanne and her people were honourably 
lodged in the fort of Coudray, and a company 
of priests was sent into Lorraine to glean a 
true report of her. Nothing but good did 
they hear tell, in Domremy and Greux and 
Coussy, in Vaucouleurs and Neuf chateau, 
everywhere the same story. She was all 
meek and maidenly, was Jeannette Dare, 
yet merrier than a merle at times, and not 
without her share of woman's wit ; loyal 
moreover to the Armagnacs, and would cleave 
to the crown, as the saying goes, though it 
hung upon a bush. 

In the meanwhile they of the Dauphin's 
council visited her constantly, and set them- 
selves to discover whether she were a saint 
or an enchantress. Her still ways baffled 
them : " She is a gentle little shepherdess," 

35 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

quoth one, " candid, but not given to much 
talking." " I see nothing in her," quoth 
another, " that is not Cathoh'c and reason- 
able." Which was high praise truly, for there 
are many things reasonable without being 
Catholic, and many things Catholic without 
being reasonable, and to find these two 
together is like finding a choice orange-tree, 
bearing flowers and fruits at once. 

On a day when she was riding into Chinon, 
a man met her by the roadside and cast foul 
words at her, and the Maid turning in her 
saddle looked him sorrowfully between the 
eyes. " Do you swear ? " said she, " and 
you so near youi death ! " And he died 
within the hour, for he chanced to fall into 
a moat and was drowned. 
^ If any doubted her mission she would 
seek out the little chapel of Saint Martin 
(where now the monthly roses redden at 
will), to hush herself by prayer and wait upon 
her Counsel, and the consolation it gave her 
she would most gladly have shared, had it 

36 



ORLEANS 

been possible. " I wish," she said, " that 
all might hear the Voices, even as I." 

In such wise, generations later, did John 
Bunyan desire to share his joy with the 
very crows in the ploughlands. Yet there 
were other times when the sun seemed 
to grudge him its light, and the tiles of the 
roofs and the flagstones of the street seemed 
leagued together against him, for Bunyan 
the tinker was a man of moods, whose spirits 
rose and fell like a playing fountain, while the 
mind of the Maid was balanced fair and 
strong, as God balances his stars in the mid- 
heaven. 

It happened that near Chinon lived a 
royal prince, the Duke of Alengon, but lately 
home from England, where for three years he 
had been held a prisoner. He was hunting 
quails in the Saint Florent marshes when 
rumour stayed him, and babbled of the 
virgin of the Bois Chesnu, and although 
loath to quit his sport, he was minded to clap 
eyes upon this nine days' wonder. Therefore, 

37 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

as destiny would have it, he left off from 
hunting quails and rode to Chinon, and 
Jeanne bade him heartily welcome. " The 
more of the blood royal are joined to this 
cause," she cried, " the better for the cause 
and the blood royal." Alen9on was young 
and debonair, and she christened him her 
" pretty Duke," while he on his part so much 
admired her lance-practice and horseman- 
ship in the fields by Chinon castle, beside 
the jocund waters of the Vienne, that he gave 
her a war charger, which pleased her mightily, 
since she loved good horses, even as she loved 
gay stuffs and woman's finery. We would 
rather, would we not, have the foibles of 
Jeanne Dare than the virtues of some godly 
people we could name ? Kings' chaff is 
better than other folks' corn. 

By this time the priests had returned from 
their mission, bearing a good report, but still 
the Dauphin wavered. So to set his mind 
at rest, the council and the bishops hit 
upon a plan. The Maid should be examined 

38 



ORLEANS 

before the university of Poitiers, and those 
learned professors should decide what manner 
of spirit she was of. Impatient to be doing, 
the very ground seeming molten under her 
feet, she must nevertheless resign herself 
and go to Poitiers. 

Now this was the foremost city of Poitou, 
and not merely the seat of a university, but 
of the Parliament also, since the day that 
Paris fell to the Burgundians ; and one 
Rabateau, advocate to the Parliament, 
journeyed thither from time to time, and 
lodged in a tavern which had the sign of a 
rose above its doorway. The Maid was 
placed in his keeping, and the doctors of the 
university, lawyers and canonists, and what 
not, came to the house and questioned her 
daily. (Note 7, p. 60.) 

They asked her, the sorry fools, if she be- 
lieved in God, she whose whole mind was set 
on God as the sunflower yearns to the sun. 
They catechised her touching dusty doctrines 
with the cobwebs of a thousand years upon 

39 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

them, for her claim must needs be tested by 
all the Fathers of the Church. " Yet our 
Lord has other books," said Jeanne, " than 
those you prate of. I do not know A from B, 
but this I know, I come by the word of God to 
deliver Orleans from the English, and have 
the Dauphin blessed to king at Rheims. 
Am I in Poitiers to work signs and miracles ? 
Give me soldiers, few or many, and let me 
go." Then they began to reason of the 
matter : "If," said they, " God purposes to 
deliver France, he can deliver it without 
your aid." Whereupon her patience snapped, 
so that one might all but hear it snapping. 
" He helps who help themselves," she cried ; 
" the men-at-arms shall fight the battles, 
and God will give the victory." Another 
day they asked her of her Voices : " Did the 
angels speak good French ? " inquired Seguin, 
professor of theology. " Better than yours," 
she retorted, and raised a laugh, for he, 
worth}^ man, talked with a Limousin accent 
that set the teeth on edge. 

40 



ORLEANS 

Truly, never mortal maid has been so much 
plagued by questions as Jeanne Dare. It 
was the doctors of the Church who questioned 
her then, it is the doctors of medicine who 
question her now. " Jeanne," said they of old 
time when she stood before them in the house 
of Rabateau, " tell us, are you come from 
Satan or from God ? " " Jeanne," say they 
of this generation, the medical men and the 
critics, peering at her through the twilit 
centuries, " tell us, did you experience 
unilatercil hallucinations ? " 

It was plain to see that the Maid led a 
devout and sober life. Weekly she received 
the blessed Sacrament, daily when possible 
she heard mass, also prime and vespers, and 
confessed herself monthly with great serious- 
ness and simplicity. " One cannot," she 
was wont to say, " cleanse one's conscience 
too often." Yet in truth her sins were no 
worse to look at than poppies that mar the 
standing corn. Therefore after much hair- 
splitting and spinning of casuistry, the uni- 

41 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

versity gave sentence in her favour : Jeanne 
Dare, they pronounced, was a good Christian 
and a good CathoHc, and the king should 
accept the aid she offered, since to repel it 
were to offend the Spirit, and render himself 
unworthy of the help of God. (Note 8, p. 60.) 

Upon which this notable assemblage of 
wiseacres dispersed, and no great harm 
done. But Jeanne and her company got to 
the saddle, and two generations later there 
still remained old folks in Poitiers that would 
point out the Maid's mounting-stone, hard 
by the church of Saint Stephen, where she 
took horse for Tours. (Note 9, p. 60.) 

The Dauphin immediately proclaimed 
her leader of the royal forces, with the 
Duke of Alengon as her lieutenant-in-chief. 
Further, he gave her a household befitting 
her new station, among them Pasquerel 
the Augustinian her confessor, D'Aulon her 
equerry, Raimond and Louis de Conte her 
pages. Charles, it is true, had no standing 
army, but Orleanist raiders in plenty began 

42 



ORLEANS 

to offer as recruits. " They will hear the 
drums," so Jeanne had said at Domremy 
when the greybeards told her how Frenchmen 
were turned craven every one ; " they will 
hear the drums ; they will answer." And 
the numbers swelled from day to day. The 
gentry sold their lands to buy a captaincy, 
or if they had not lands to sell, enlisted as 
archers and thought it no shame. In Blois 
the Maid set up her camp, on the river flats 
beside the snake-green Loire, and had a wild 
enough rabble for her army, the generals little 
better than the troops, swashbucklers all — the 
Marshal de Boussac, the Marshal de Rais, 
Poton de Saintrailles, and La Hire ; Satan 
La Hire his men were used to call him, by 
reason of his frequent fearsome oaths. 

Yet before three days were out she had 
that camp in applepie order ; no pillaging, 
no drink, no dice, the troops confessing 
themselves and going to mass as to the 
manner born. Even La Hire, the ruffianly 
and terrible, forewent his oaths, promising 

43 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

to swear only by his baton, and to pray 
with the best of them. " Messire God, 
do unto me as I would do unto you, were 
I God and you La Hire " ; so ran his first 
prayer, it is said, and the mirth of the Maid 
was good hearing. 

Her white armour was fashioned by a 
master craftsman in Tours, and the burghers 
gave her a scabbard all of cloth of gold, while 
for her sword she sent to Fierbois, since her 
Voices told her of an ancient sword engraven 
with five crosses, lying buried out of sight 
and out of mind behind the altar in Saint 
Catherine's church, the which, they said, 
should serve her in battle. The priests had 
never heard tell of it, but digged behind the 
altar none the less, and brought it to her 
marvelling. (Note lo, p. 60.) 

Furthermore, she caused two standards to 
be broidered, the larger for her standard- 
bearer, the lesser for herself. The first was 
of white linen, silken-fringed, whereon were 
the lilies of France and figures of Jesus and 

44 



ORLEANS 

Mary, with angels adoring, and the words 
" Jesu Maria " ; while the second bore a 
dove on a blue ground, and its motto ran, 
" De part le roi du ciel." In the chapel of 
Saint Saviour they were hallowed, upon the 
steeps of Blois. (Note ii, p. 60.) 

Now the Maid sent word to the English 
before Orleans, bidding them quit the siege and 
surrender their strongholds to the Dauphin, 
but they merely laughed at her challenge ; 
accordingly she struck her tents and the 
march began. With her personal staff about 
her she rode at the head of her troops, " a 
thing wholly divine," quoth one, " both to 
see and to hear," and after her followed a 
band of priests chanting the " Veni Creator " : 
for this much is very certain ; if you want a 
man to fight his best and die his bravest, 
you must give him in some sort that passion- 
ate battlecry of warring tribes, " Arise, O God, 
maintain thine own cause." 

On Friday the 29th of April, the Maid 
first sighted Orleans, whereof the name 

45 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

shall be married with her own so long as 
there is speech in the round world. Yonder 
it lay in the bend of the river, and wished it 
had never been built. The city was encircled 
by a dozen forts, some upon the north bank 
and some upon the south, and the English 
for the most part were encamped to the 
northward. Jeanne intended to approach 
from the north and attack the enemy out of 
hand, but her generals, grown grey in reverses 
and disaster, had lost all liking for pitched 
battles, and preferred to besiege the besiegers 
at their leisure. Therefore they tricked 
her, which was no hard matter, seeing she 
had not any knowledge of the roads, and 
brought her to the southern bank, her and 
her whole army ; and the Governor of 
Orleans was privy to the plot. Now 
when she perceived it her heart grew hot 
within her, since she had provisions in plent}^ 
to victual the starving town, and how were 
these to enter ? The English, very like, 
would suffer them to pass, for the siege by 

46 



ORLEANS 

this time was turned to a blockade, as negli- 
gent as you please, the enemy remaining in 
his trenches and making no sallies ; but the 
river flowed between, and the wind blew 
contrary. 

While Jeanne debated what to do, came 
Dunois the Governor with knights and citizens 
to bid her welcome, and their coming was 
through the Burgundy Gate, the only gate 
the enemy had not seized. " Are you the 
Bastard of Orleans ? " she asked, since he 
was son to Duke Louis, and that was the 
name he went by, from one end of France 
to the other. 

" I am he," said Dunois, " and right glad 
to see you." 

" My Lord's counsel," she cried, " is wiser 
than yours. I bring you the best help ever 
knight or city had, and you sought to deceive 
me, but you have deceived yourselves, and 
except God mend your folly and change the 
wind, there is no remedy." 

And while she was yet speaking, the wind 
47 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

changed. So then the Maid and Dunois put 
across the river, and two hundred lances 
with them, and cattle and supplies ; but the 
boats were insufficient for the shipping of 
the troops, wherefore these must needs re- 
return to Blois, and gain the northerly bank 
by a bridge farther down the river. Jeanne 
would remain in the city meantime, and 
await the coming of her army. 

She entered without difficulty under cover 
of night, and took lodging, she and her 
brothers and Louis de Conte her page, in 
the house of Jacques Boucher, treasurer of 
Orleans. Eager crowds made haste to greet 
her, thronging the narrow torch-lit streets, 
poor wretches with scant food in their 
stomachs and scant hope in their hearts, 
and one, so it fared, set fire to her standard 
by mischance, yet she herself did quench it 
in a hand's turn, for she was skilful in small 
matters no less than great. 

On the morrow she sent word to the 
besiegers a second time. She could not write, 

48 



ORLEANS 

being unlettered (Note 12, p. 61), but she 
dictated, and this is what the EngHsh got to 
read : " King of England, and you, Duke of 
Bedford, who call yourself Regent of France 
(Note 13, p. 61), and William de la Pole, Earl 
of Suffolk, render to the Dauphin the keys 
of all the towns you took and violated. The 
Maid is sent hither by God to restore the blood 
royal, yet she is very ready to make peace if 
you will do her right, by giving up France 
and paying for what you have held. And 
you archers, noble and simple, begone to your 
own land, or expect news of the Maid who 
will shortly come to see you to your great 
hurt. King of England, if you do not so, 
wherever I find your people, I shall drive 
them out. Think not to hold the realm 
from the Lord of Heaven, Son of the blessed 
Mary ; King Charles shall hold it, for God 
has revealed the same by means of the 
Maid." 

The Earl of Suffolk thought he would 
teach this silly Amazon a lesson, so he kept 
D 49 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

her two heralds as hostages, and sent her 
some good advice ; she had best go home, he 
said, and mind her cows. On the following 
Tuesday the French army came from Blois, 
despite the Dauphin's counsellors, who strove 
to disband it ; for already Jeanne had her 
sworn foes at court. La Tremouille and 
Regnault de Chartres the Archbishop, both 
of them resolved upon thwarting her enter- 
prise ; sham courtiers these of a sham king, 
and they misliked the meddling of a low- 
born girl, her troublesome patriotism and 
her call to arms. 

She welcomed her troops without the walls, 
and led them to their quarters in the city, and 
never a shot fired from the enemy's lines. 
The English were not afraid of her as yet. A 
century of conquest lay behind them, and 
they had veteran generals, Talbot and de la 
Pole ; even now they awaited reinforcements 
under Sir John Falstaff, and sixty miles to 
the north of them was Paris with fresh 
supplies of men and money for the asking, 

50 



ORLEANS 

since there the Duke of Bedford ruled as 
Regent in his boy nephew's name. But the 
tide was at the turn. 

Early the following morning Jeanne started 
out of sleep : " French blood is flowing," 
she exclaimed, " and I have not been told." 
Arming herself in haste, she set upon her 
head the white-plumed velvet cap, a keep- 
sake from the townsfolk of Orleans ; then 
she mounted her horse and rode to the 
Burgundy Gate. Over against it the English 
held the fortress of Saint Loup, and a mixed 
rabble of soldiery and citizens had attacked 
the garrison, yet their courage proved only 
a flash in the pan, and now they were getting 
the worst of it. But the skirmish of Saint 
Loup was not to end as a thousand other 
skirmishes had ended, for the Maid of Orleans 
had taken the field, " clear as the sun, fair 
as the moon, terrible as an army with 
banners." 

She rallied her men on the instant, though 
the odds were great against her ; the mystic 

51 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

sword of Fierbois drank no blood, nor ever 
did, yet where it gleamed, and where her 
standard wimpled, the victory was sure. 
She drove the enemy back into the fort, 
and Dunois then besought her to let well 
alone, but the Maid was not so minded. 
" Bastard ! Bastard ! " she upbraided him, 
" will you always play with these English ? 
Sound the charge ! I will carry the place 
by storm." Which she did, and utterly 
destroyed it, excepting ammunition and 
supplies. At this fight a number of priests 
were taken prisoner, but Jeanne gave them 
their freedom : " For," said she, " theirs 
is the livery of God." (She came to know 
it better presently, that livery of the Anglo- 
Burgundian priesthood, and doubted, maybe, 
whether God would own it.) 

After the storming of Saint Loup the English 
leaders formed a weighty resolution, which 
was to weaken their garrisons north of the 
river and strengthen those upon the southern 
bank. Saint Loup they could afford to part 

52 




SHE RALLIED HER MEN ON THE INSTANT 



ORLEANS 

with if needs must, but not with the Augustins 
or the Boulevard, nor with the fort of Les 
Tourelles. As for the Enghsh soldiery, the 
bowmen and the poorer sort, the fear of 
witchcraft gripped them by the throat. The 
tide had turned. 

Thursday in that week was Ascension Day, 
and the Maid's generals seized eagerly upon 
the pretext ; there must be no fighting on 
such a holy feast. Yet this they said, not 
from any sudden fit of piety, but because 
they were afraid to risk sorties. Jeanne 
wished to meet the enemy in the open, her 
generals wished to revictual the city and 
leave it to stand a siege, for the old terror of 
the English still possessed them, and though 
willing to use the Maid as a mascot, they 
distrusted her as a military leader. She 
herself was ready enough to avert bloodshed 
and to make peace with honour ; for she 
deemed it, she said, a dolorous pity that the 
gallants of France and England should turn 
their steel the one against the other, rather than 

53 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

fight as brothers-in-arms against the common 
foe of Christendom, Mahound. Accordingly 
she addressed the English a third time, 
fastening her letter to an arrow and shooting 
it beyond the city walls. 

At that there arose an ugly hubbub in 
the enemy's camp. " News ! News ! " they 
clamoured, " from the harlot of the 
Armagnacs." And the Maid standing upon 
the battlements wept to hear them, for she 
was stainless as a white frost, and the vile 
taunt pierced to the young indignant heart 
of her. 

" You men of England," so ran the letter, 
" who have no right to this kingdom, the 
Lord of Heaven commands that you quit your 
strong places and return to your own country, 
or I will cause you such an overthrow as shall 
never be forgotten. I write to you for the 
third and last time ; I will not write again." 

The enemy gave neither sign nor answer, 
and on the morrow Jeanne struck home. It 
was a fast-day, yet no fast was kept ; the 

54 



ORLEANS 

Maid of Orleans had other fish to fry. By 
means of a bridge of boats and the islet of 
Aignan she threw her army across the river, 
and attacked the fort of the Augustins. 
First all went prosperously, but presently 
the garrison from Fort Saint Prive rode to 
the rescue, and the French wavered and 
broke. Only the Maid still sat her horse 
unmoved, while the crossbows volleyed 
arrows and the culverins spat stones. 
" Follow me," she cried, " if there be a dozen 
of you that are not cowards \ " It was 
enough ; the flying squadrons wheeled, and 
as the sun went down below the brimming 
Loire, the ensign of the fleur-de-lys floated 
gaily from the ramparts. 

Yet the following day, when Jeanne rode 
to the Burgundy Gate, she and a troop 
of horse along with her, they found it closed 
against them. For the generals had an 
inkling that she meant to assault the Boule- 
vard, the very bulwark of the English 
strength, and their hearts misgave them at 

55 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

the madcap venture. Accordingly the}^ 
sent Raoul de Gaucourt, bailiff of Orleans, 
and bade him guard the gate. But if you 
have a notion that heaven is on your side, 
you do not lose time paltering with bailiffs, 
and Jeanne Dare headed a cavalry charge 
sheer in the middle of his cries and protesta- 
tions. Through the gate she went, out and 
away, and joined her army on the southerly 
bank, an army which had found itself, and 
was prepared to follow her blindfold to the 
smoking verge of hell. 

All day long she played upon the Boulevard 
with artillery, resolved to force an entrance ; 
since immediately behind the Boulevard a 
drawbridge led into the fort of Les Tourelles, 
and the English knew, and the French knew, 
how if once this fort were captured, the siege 
was at an end. But the Boulevard held out 
with a will, and finally, to make matters 
worse, the Maid was wounded. Nor did the 
mischance take her unawares, for already on 
the 22nd of April, when still encamped before 

56- 



ORLEANS 

Blois, she had foretold that on the 7th of May 
she would be hurt by an arrow through the 
shoulder, and this saying of hers was set 
down in writing at the time. 

The bolt hit her above the breast, and 
stuck out beyond the shoulder-blade a hand's 
breadth and more. They carried her to a 
vineyard close by, and drew forth the arrow, 
dressing the wound with oil, but when the}^ 
would have muttered charms to cure it, she 
said she had sooner die than be so eased. 

Straightway the garrison took heart of 
grace, because the witch of the Armagnacs 
was gone from out the battle ; therefore the 
Dauphin's troops were beaten off, and Dunois 
gave the signal to retire. Jeanne heard that 
signal from the vineyard where she lay, 
and started up, unmindful of her wound. 
Meat or drink she had tasted none since 
daybreak, and then only a manchet of 
bread and a cup of country wine, but her 
strength was not yet spent. In a trice she 
was back at the Boulevard renewing the 

57 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

attack, as light of step upon the scaUng 
ladder as once upon the dun hill slopes of 
Vermont. Moreover, she caused to be fired 
sundry shots, which were a sign appointed 
to La Hire that the Boulevard would shortly 
surrender, and that he must advance the rear- 
guard speedily, reinforcing the assault on 
Les Tourelles. And by the time his troopers 
came alongside, the Boulevard had been 
taken, sure enough. 

They fought like beasts at bay, Sir William 
Glasdale and his gallant English, nor did they 
yield themselves to man alive but only to the 
water and the fire ; for it was a French 
fire-boat which destroyed the drawbridge, so 
that every mother's son atop of it died 
drowning in the moat, and the pity of the 
spectacle did move the Maid to tears, though 
Glasdale was her mortal foe and named her 
with dishonour. 

Twilight — and the end in sight, and a few 
stars peeping, corpse-candles to the slain. 
Nightfall — and ringing hoof-beats on the road, 

58 



ORLEANS 

for a mounted courier sped in haste to the 
Dauphin. The fort was fallen, and the siege 
was raised ; the ablest generals of France 
had fumbled at the task full seven months, 
a slip of a girl achieved it in three days. 

Rejoicing crowds ran riot through the 
streets, the jolly bonfires made a noon of 
midnight, and cannon that had ceased to talk 
of death now roared like boon companions 
at a fair. But Jeanne went to bed early, 
and slept until morning ; and when morning 
broke, Sunday the 8th of May in the year of 
God 1429, there was heard a music blithe as 
marriage bells, the note of Talbot's bugles 
sounding the retreat. 

NOTES TO PART II 

Note 6, p. 28. — Jeanne Dare was never subject to what 
is commonly meant by trance, ecstasy, hemi-anaesthesia, 
and the hke, nor did she betray the least symptoms either 
of hysteria or dual personahty. For my own part I am 
entirely convinced that there must be some explanation 
of her genius, midway between the inadmissibly miraculous 
and the merely pathological, and I am equally convinced 
that whatever the explanation may prove to be, none of 
us has hit upon it yet. 

59 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Note 7, p. 39. — In the Palais de Justice at Poitiers, 
anciently the residence of the Counts of Poitou and Dukes 
of Aquitaine, there is a hall, La Salle des Pas Perdus, 
which claims on very scanty evidence to have been the 
scene of the Maid's trial. It is far more probable that she 
was examined at the Hotel de la Rose, the lodging of 
Councillor Rabateau. 

Note 8, p. 42. — " Le Roi, attendu qu'on ne trouve point 
de mal en la dite pucelle, fors que bien, humilite, virginite, 
devocion, honnetete, simplesse, . . . ne la doit empescher 
d'aller a Orleans avec ses gens d'armes, car la doupter ou 
delaisser sans apparence de mal seroit repugner au sainct 
Esprit, et se rendre indigne de I'aide de Dieu." 

Note 9, p. 42. — Some accounts have it that Jeanne went 
first to Chinon, and afterwards to Tours, and if she left 
Poitiers on the Thursday in Holy Week, March 24th, she 
very likely spent Easter at Chatellerault. The Good 
Friday of 1429 fell upon Lady Day, and stirring events 
were looked for ; compare the old proverb : 

" Wlien our Lord lies down in our Lady's lap, 
England is come to a great mishap." 

* Note 10, p. 44. — There is practically no evidence for the 
tradition that this sword once belonged to the hero Charles 
Martel, who seven centuries earlier checked the Saracen 
invasion of France. 

Note II, p. 45. — About these banners there is some 
confusion. The great square standard of the army had 
upon one side, unquestionably, the picture of our Lord as 
King of Heaven, adored by angels, the world between his 
hands ; and on the opposite side, according to various 
witnesses, a picture of the Virgin Mary in Annunciation, 
while the regimental pennon, smaller and three-cornered, 
bore the emblem of the dove ; but in other descriptions 

60 



ORLEANS 

the order is reversed. There was yet a third banner, 
displaying the crucifix, with the attendant figures of the 
Madonna and St John, carried in procession by the clergy 
who accompanied the troops. It is possible that only this 
third banner was consecrated at St Saviour's. 

Note 12, p. 49. — A point seldom in dispute. 

Note 13, p. 49. — The mode of address was purely cere- 
monial, since neither Henry VI nor his uncle, Duke John 
of Bedford, were personally present before the walls of 
Orleans. 



61 



Part III 
RHEIMS 



" I see in the world the intellect of man, 
That sword, the energy his subtle spear, 
The knowledge which defends him like a shield — 
Everywhere ; but they make not up, I think. 
The marvel of a soul like thine, earth's flower 
She holds up to the softened gaze of God ! " 

Browning. 



The siege of Orleans once raised, Jeanne 
returned immediately to Tours, since this 
was the first city in Touraine, and loyal 
to the lilies above all other. (Note 14, 
p. 89.) Surely, if ever the cities of 
the world are called to judgment, that 
little town shall have good cause to bless 
itself, forasmuch as it loved the Maid de- 
voutly, and gave her happy days within 
its walls. 
The Dauphin came from Chinon to receive 
62 



RHEIMS 

her, and ennobled her by the title of Du Lys, 
her and her kindred and their heirs after 
them, and the women of this name, so he 
decreed, should in marrying ennoble their 
husbands ; further, he devised her a coat of 
arms, the lilies of France upon a field azure, 
and the crown of France at a sword's point. 
Yet to Jeanne Dare these honours were mere 
trumpery, and though she accepted them for 
her kinsfolk, she refused them for herself, 
beseeching the Dauphin if indeed he would 
do her pleasure, straightway to march to 
Rheims. 

But he on the contrary sat him down at 
his leisure in the palace of Tours (Note 15, 
p. 90), and an ill counsellor encouraged him, 
as a false physician encourages a sick man 
in the langours and whimsies. The Loire, 
said La Tremouille, was studded thick with 
English strongholds, so that it were sheer 
foolery to take the road to Rheims, and the 
royal exchequer besides was emptier than a 
last year's nest. But Dunois, Bastard of 

63 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Orleans, upheld the Maid, therefore the 
Dauphin halted between two opinions. 
Poor soul, he had a mad father and a bad 
mother, the which excuse must serve him, 
both here and hereafter. 

Daily Jeanne went to Saint Gatien's, the 
cathedral church of Tours, and prayed God 
for the moving of the Dauphin's mind, since 
truly he seemed as loath to enter Rheims as 
though he were bidden thither to his burying. 
Small comfort was it that she dwelt in a 
mansion, in the stead of a farmer's croft ; 
small comfort that the great court ladies 
looked at her enviously, for despite costly 
gear and broidered gloves, and curling pointed 
shoes, they lacked the grace of the country- 
bred girl, " the marvellous child," as folk 
had come to call her. 

Now there was a man by name Hennes 
Poulvoir, whose trade was stitchery, the 
same that wrought the Maid her several 
standards. I said she knew happy days in 
Tours, and this I said because of Heliote, the 

64 



RHEIMS 

standard-maker's daughter, who was of an 
age with her, and must have put her in mind 
of Hauviette time and again. HeHote was 
soon to be wed, and by and by Jeanne sent 
word from Bourges to greet her on the 
marriage day. Moreover the worthy bur- 
gesses of Tours, out of the love they bore 
the Maid, gave bread and wine against the 
wedding feast, and gladly would have given 
a richer gift, save that they needed every 
crown piece for the strengthening of their 
walls and fortifications. It is good to think 
how, though the Dauphin dallie'd and delayed, 
Jeanne did not lack a friend, and doubtless, 
as young girls will, they gossiped merrily 
together of an evening, while the wind 
freshened from the river, and the bells of 
Saint Gatien chimed for the " Ora pro nobis." 
(Note i6, p. 90.) 

Already the month of May was waning, 
and the army had begun to disband. Then 
one day the Maid entered the presence- 
chamber where Charles sat in council, and 

E 65 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

threw herself at his knees, blushing and 
entreating : " Dear and gentle Dauphin, 
hold not such long councils nor so many, but 
hasten to your good city of Rheims, to receive 
holy unction and the crown of your fathers. 
Use me, use me, I shall only last a year." 
(Note 17, p. 90.) 

At which he relented, and raised her 
up, and promised if she would go before 
him to capture all the strongholds of the 
Loire, he himself would follow. And with 
this knightly offer she must needs rest 
content. 

Now when Jeanne said she should not last 
above a year, she knew in part and prophesied 
in part, yet at that time most certainly she 
had no presage of the end by fire, nor of her 
taking prisoner by the English. Indeed 
upon the road to Rheims her covert foe, 
the Chancellor Archbishop, questioned her 
touching the manner of her death, to whom 
she gave answer in these words, " I know no 
more than any other. It shall be where 

66 



RHEIMS 

and how God pleases." But though Jeanne 
knew not the span of her Hfe, this much she 
knew for sure, that the span of her mission 
was a brief one, and that it were good to 
strike when the iron was hot. 

Setting up a recruiting camp at Selles 
in Berry, she had mustered an army by the 
early days of June, and her generals were 
with her, Dunois and La Hire, the Marshal de 
Rais, and the Duke of Alengon. As yet the 
" pretty Duke " had not been free to fight, 
while his ransom to the English was in raising, 
but now it had been paid to the last ecu, and 
his young Duchess trembled for his life. 
Jeanne, however, bade her keep a brave 
heart, since her lord should return to her 
safe and sound, and truly he took no hurt 
during that campaign, although at the 
storming of Jargeau he fought in the fore- 
front of the battle. 

Jargeau was the first stronghold guarding 
the approaches to the Loire, and the Maid, 
averse to bloodshed, proclaimed that if the 

67 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

garrison would yield, they should have a free 
passage for themselves and their horses. 
But the town was in possession of the Earl of 
Suffolk and his brother John de la Pole, men 
not minded to submit without a struggle. 
The fortifications had long been thought 
impregnable, yet Jeanne carried them by 
assault, and both the de la Poles were taken. 
They were of a high spirit, these two brothers, 
for the younger gave knighthood on the spot 
to the man who made him prisoner, lest it be 
said that any of the lordly house of Suffolk 
surrendered to a fellow of no worth ; while 
the elder would surrender to Jeanne only, 
and gallantly delivered up his sword into 
her hands. 

At Jargeau, it fortuned, she met a certain 
Katharine, a mystic of the baser sort, 
suffering ecstasies and trances and what 
not, for the troublous times bred many such, 
as will-o'-the-wisps are bred by the marsh 
vapours. This Kathaiine boasted nightly 
visitations from a white ghost lady, and 

68 



RHEIMS 

the divining of hid treasure, wherewith to pay 
the whole French army in crocks of minted 
gold. Jeanne knew, none better, that 
passing strange things happen in the world, 
yet no less true for all that they are strange ; 
accordingly she resolved to test her, and both 
of them lay. abed, and waited and waited, but 
before it had turned midnight the Maid fell 
fast asleep. " Which was a pity," quoth 
Katharine upon the morrow, " since at the 
middle night the white lady appeared, and 
communed with me of my mission." So 
Jeanne determined to keep better watch 
next time, and tarried broad awake till dawn, 
yet never a glimmer of the fantastical spectre 
did she see. Then she lost patience, and spoke 
her mind pretty plainly : " Your mission," 
said she, " is folly the merest. Go you home 
to your husband and children." Wherefore 
when the too, too clever people seek to 
belittle the Maid, and call her a visionary, 
let them remember that it is a small thing 
to see visions and hear voices, and quite 

69 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

another thing to raise the siege of Orleans. 
There have been many Katharines in the 
world ; there has only been one Jeanne 
Dare. 

Now about this time the High Constable of 
France, a man of renown but hostile to the 
Armagnacs, sought out the Maid and offered 
her his good services, suffering her to re- 
concile him with the Duke of Alen9on, a surer 
token of her greatness and a clearer gain to 
France, than the storming of Jargeau, for it 
is easier to make a breach than mend it, to 
take a city than pacify a quarrel. 

After these things the march began again, 
and men marvelled at her endurance, since 
she would bear her armour six days and 
nights together. The bridge of Meung she 
carried by assault, and de Rais was set to 
watch it, for there were English upon the 
farther side, while in the meantime de 
Richemont the Constable beleaguered the 
strong fortress of Beaugency. Jeanne en- 
camped apart with the main army, and 

70 



RHEIMS 

Talbot offered her battle the same night, but 
she declined it at the bidding of her Voices, 
which said if she would bide until the morrow, 
de Richemont should rejoin her, and the 
Marshal likewise, to the great strengthening 
of her forces. And this assuredly came to 
pass ; Beaugency surrendered at the rising of 
the sun, and Talbot recalled his men from 
Meung, so that there was no longer urgent 
need to keep a watch upon the bridge. Yet 
whether or not she had the second sight, let 
fools judge, since it is more than the wisest 
can say. 

Early the next morning, the i8th of June, 
the enemy began to move, as Talbot had it 
in his mind to choose a point of vantage for 
the battle. " Have you good spurs ? " asked 
the Maid of her generals. " You will surely 
make use of them. These men are ours." At 
Patay she overtook the English, on level 
land of a forlorn waste aspect, such as you 
may see in countless battlefields, the graves 
of some lost cause. But if Patay was the 

71 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

grave of a lost cause, the Plantagenet dominion 
throughout France, it was also a birthplace, 
the first French victory in the open for near 
upon a century, and from the ashes of the 
slain the phoenix of French honour rose re- 
newed. Therefore on the world's red roll- 
call Patay holds no mean rank, and it was 
won by a seventeen-year-old girl against the 
veteran chivalry of England. Talbot himself 
was taken prisoner. " The fortune of battle ! " 
quoth he, the grim, grey war-dog, caught 
at last. 

The fight endured till sundown ; already 
the shadows were stepping stealthily across 
Jhe stricken plain, and truly a woeful scene 
they traversed, for a fallen nation, like a 
fallen world, may in no wise be redeemed 
save by a mortal agony and bloody sweat. 
Amongst the wounded was a certain poor 
fellow whom the French hurt and left to 
perish, because he had not wherewith to pay 
his ransom. It is a hard thing, and a lone- 
some thing, to meet death far from home, 

72 



RHEIMS 

when the sea is salt between your folks and 
you, and you know that alien earth shall 
weigh you down ; but his was a good end 
none the less, since Jeanne Dare knelt 
beside him at the last, and eased his 
dying. 

Night fell, upon that soul and many 
another, and upon all the smitten field, and 
all the joyous clamour of the troops. " Live 
for ever. Maid of Orleans ! " they cried ; 
" live for ever ! " Yet she answered, looking 
about her with grave eyes : " The praise is 
to God. In a thousand years, in a thousand 
years, the English power over France shall 
not revive again." 

Orleans, the glad and grateful, prepared 
to receive the victors, prepared to receive the 
Dauphin also, but the Dauphin did not come, 
since La Tremouille had bidden him welcome 
at his own castle of SuUy-sur-Loire, and here 
they were mightily taken up with their 
jongleurs and their falconers. To Sully-sur- 
Loire accordingly Jeanne went, and wrought 

73 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

the good work of a peacemaker, by recon- 
ciling de Richemont to the Dauphin, as 
already she had reconciled him to Alengon. 
For from the first day she set eyes on the 
Constable, she saw in him the one man able 
to finish her work. She would free France, 
and he should keep it free. 

It may be that the victory of Patay had 
momentarily fired the Dauphin's courage, 
since now he agreed to take the road to 
Rheims. This was a bloodless march, a 
festal progress, and the highways were 
thronged with eager folk. Wise men sought 
the Maid's counsel on coinage and inheritance 
and deep problems of theology, while , the 
old crones brought chaplets and crosses that 
she might bless them ; but she only smiled 
and said, " Touch them yourselves. Your 
touch is as good as mine." The towns flung 
wide their gates at her approach — Gien and 
Auxerre, Saint Florentin, Saint Fal, and 
Troyes and Chalons. 

At Troyes, so it chanced, Jeanne fell in 
74 



RHEIMS 

with Brother Richard, who was a wandering 
friar of repute, his preaching all of Anti- 
Christ and portents and the advent of the 
Doom, and himself as scared of necro- 
mancy as any old widow woman. More- 
over, he had lent an ear to tavern talk, 
how white butterflies hovered round the 
banner of the Maid, and the like wonder- 
stories not a few. Therefore when he beheld 
her he was in a great taking, and sprinkled 
holy water lest he should see her mount a 
broomstick. But she laughed at him gaily ; 
" Come nearer," quoth she, " come nearer ; 
I shall not fly away." Doubtless Jeanne 
Dare was a mystic, yet she had no one thought 
in common with the Richards and the 
Katharines of her time, whose mysticism 
was a brainsick thing, and sheer self-seeking 
if the truth were told, while hers was fit alike 
for earth and heaven, as the sun which holds 
the planets in their courses disdains not to 
ripen a poor man's pot-herbs. 

On the i6th of July, all in the hushed 
75 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

blue summer even, the towers of Rheims 
cathedral sprang to view, and if the Dauphin's 
pulses failed to quicken at the sight, more 
shame to him and the race that begat him. 
The English and Burgundian garrison had 
fled, and the gates stood friendly open Hke 
the gates of home ; therefore the army 
entered in a holiday humour, and the 
coronation was appointed for the morrow. 

Five hours of a summer's morn it took, 
turning the Dauphin Charles into a king ; 
if they had stopped to make a man of him, 
God knows they had been in Rheims cathedral 
till this day. First a company of knights 
must ride to the abbey of Saint Remi, and 
fetch the holy chrism, the Sainte Ampoule, 
which served for the anointing of all the 
Kings of France, ever since a white dove 
brought it down from heaven at the crowning 
of Clovis, and the story is as true as most. 
The knights rode into the cathedral with a 
lordly clatter, and the sacred vessel was 
delivered to the Archbishop of Rheims, who 

76 



RHEIMS 

set it upon the altar. The Dauphin mean- 
while tarried at the altar steps, by his side 
the Maid of Orleans in cloth of gold and 
bright silks richly furred, her banner between 
her hands. So you stood, Jeanne Dare, 
the uncrowned queen of all those solemn 
rites, you white sword-lily from the pleasaunce 
gardens of the Lord ! 

The midday sunlight smote the lofty 
oriels, blazing forth to the memory of 
venerated dead, and set a myriad jewels 
winking in the glass. The cathedral was 
densely thronged, and among the press one 
might have seen (or might have overlooked, 
more likely) two homely figures, rustics both. 
These had no eyes for the goodly horses and 
goldsmith's work and armour, nor yet for 
vested priests and Sainte Ampoule, but only 
for the Maid, since they were none other 
than Jacques Dare and Durand Lassois. 
And strange thoughts, truly, must have 
filled their minds, as bees swarm to and fro 
within a hive. Who knows if the bees in 

n 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Lassois' hive went humming a bUthe song ? 
Who knows if the bees in Jacques Dare's 
hive had an ugly sting about them ? 

Presently came a stir at the west doorway, 
and the twelve high peers of the realm made 
their state entrance, of whom one must needs 
stand proxy for Burgundian Philip. Then the 
Dauphin, meetly anointed, took oath in the 
presence of his nobles to govern justly and 
with mercy, to keep the peace of the Church 
(which was no light matter, seeing there were 
two Popes), and to preserve the commons 
from exactions (which was no light matter 
either, seeing money must be had by hook or 
by crook). After that he set the crown upon 
his head, and the people cried, " Noel ! 
Noel ! " (Note i8, p. 90), because a Valois 
reigned again in France. 

Now when the king was crowned, he 
turned to the Maid beside him, and bade her 
require a boon of him, as Herod bade Salome, 
whatsoever she listed and he would give it 
her. And Jeanne did not crave her enemy's 

78 




"and bade her require a boon of him" 



RHEIMS 

head in a charger, though the head of La 
Tremouille had been no great loss, but asked 
this merely, that her native village of 
Domremy should be free from taxes. The 
which was granted, and faithfully fulfilled 
three hundred years and upwards ; thus in 
the official records of taxation one might 
have turned a page and happened on the 
entry, "Domremy — Rien. La pucelle." 
(Note 19, p. 90.) Yet by and by the lava 
torrents of the Titanic volcano that men 
call the French Revolution, buried all things 
ancient, whether they were good or whether 
they were evil, and this good custom perished 
with the rest. The Maid of Orleans to-day 
has much she did not ask for, statues here 
and statues there, whole libraries of print to 
tell her story, votive shrines and votive 
tablets, altar liUes prim and pure ; but the 
only reward she did ask is denied her. 

After the coronation was spread a sumptuous 
banquet, all manner of meats and sparkling 
wines in plenty, since the folk of the Middle 

79 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Ages loved good cheer and roistering, and 
long, long pomps, like to a fairy tale. Jeanne 
made her kinsmen welcome at the feast, 
seeing she was not one to think meanly of 
the hearth that bred her, nor have her head 
turned with the splendours of a court, which 
are apt to finish in disaster, even as the 
lightning is lackeyed by the thunder. In 
truth, she was wearying for home : "I 
wish," sighed she, " I might go back to 
my mother, who would be very glad to see 
me." 

The king once crowned, Jeanne urgently 
counselled the march to Paris, yet his fitful 
energy had flickered out, and already he was 
treating with the Duke of Burgundy to yield 
him Paris upon easy terms. By force of arms 
he should win it, said the Maid, in twenty 
days if he would play the man ; but were he 
to dally over much, the English would dis- 
pute the mastery of France another twenty 
years. And a truer word was never spoken. 
(Note 20, p. 90.) Thus she pushed and 

80 



RHEIMS 

persuaded him into leaving Rheims, yet 
after half a dozen leagues his heart misgave 
him, and he turned aside to pray for good 
success ; and though prayer and the things 
of the spirit were meat and drink to 
Jeanne Dare, her patience was tried, and 
sorely, by a poltroonery which mimicked 
devotion. 

Presently, however, she had him under 
way again, and as upon the march to Rheims, 
so now upon the march to Paris, the enemy's 
strongholds surrendered each in turn. There 
went a report among Frenchmen that the 
English were a superstitious people, and sure 
it is that terror of the sorceress had spread 
like the spreading of the plague. Yet those 
about her, who watched her daily, saw 
only a maid of rustic speech and modest 
demeanour. " In all she does," wrote the 
Duke of Alen^on, " save the affairs of war, she 
is a very simple young girl ; but in war-like 
things most skilful, acting as prudently as 
a captain of thirty years' service. More 
F 8i 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

especially she is marvellous when directing 
artillery." 

Thanks to the king's prayers and dawdlings 
and palterings with Burgundy, it was turned 
September before the army encamped at La 
Chapelle, a village close to Paris ; nigh 
twenty years were over and gone since Charles 
looked last upon his capital, and in the mean- 
while it had crowned his rival. On the 
morning of the 8th, feast of the birthday 
of the Virgin Mother, Jeanne attacked the 
gate of Saint Honore, keeping half her 
men in reserve to guard against a sortie 
from Saint Denis. The trench was very 
deep about the walls, but, testing it with 
her lance, she ordered that piles of faggots 
should be brought to fill it to the brim, 
and surely if slowly the French troops 
made headway. Yet by sunset, as ill luck 
fared, she was wounded, and they carried 
her forth of the field, protesting, " I must 
win Paris now, or die." The live-long 
night she tossed upon her bed, and again 

82 



RHEIMS 

and again the cry broke from her : "It 
might have been taken ! It might have 
been taken ! " 

Soon as the morrow Hghtened she was 
astir, for Alengon, she knew, had thrown a 
bridge across the Seine, and she purposed to 
attack the city on the farther side. Then 
they told her that the bridge was broken 
down, an enemy having destroyed it over- 
night, and the enemy was not the Duke of 
Bedford, nor yet Sir John Falstaff, but 
Charles VII, anointed King of France. He 
would, said he, make truce with Burgundy, 
and retreat beyond the Loire, promising to 
molest Paris no further. At this Jeanne 
went to the great church of Saint Denis, 
which was the burial-place of the French 
kings, and hung up her white armour as an 
offering ; and the English carried it away, 
none knows whither. 

But though Charles relinquished Paris and 
moved south, he would not let the Maid 
return to Domremy, lest he should have need 

83 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

of her, and in an evil hour she suffered 
it to be so, because the hne of Valois was 
precious in her sight, and because, for all 
his faint heart and his fopperies, she deemed 
him the Lord's anointed. Hawking, hunting, 
serenading, purposeless, inglorious, the royal 
household trailed from place to place ; into 
Touraine they drifted and out again, from 
Poitou to Berry and from Berry to Poitou. 
Michaelmas went by, and Hallowmas, 
Christmas and Candlemas (those old-time 
altar fires which make bright the winter), 
until the brief allotted year was wellnigh 
spent. Small wonder that Jeanne drooped 
and pined, as you may have seen the poor 
caged eagles languish upon the Capitolian 
hill at Rome. True, now and then she 
was grudgingly permitted to go to the 
rescue of some beleaguered town ; of such 
sort the relief of Saint Pierre-le-Moustier, 
a thing excellently done, brilliant and 
swift like sheet-Hghtning. But the re- 
lieving of La Charite she must needs 

84 



RHEIMS 

abandon, for though the faithful cities of 
Bourges and Orleans gave freely of their 
poverty, the supplies proved all too scant, 
and the king sent never a sack of meal towards 
the victualling of his troops. He had no fear 
of God before his eyes, only the fear of Philip, 
Duke of Burgundy, and when the Maid 
desired to enter Normandy, and fight a 
bold campaign with Dunois by her side, she 
might not have her will. 

Yet as the spring advanced, and treaty 
after treaty had miscarried, it was plain to 
see that Philip dealt treacherously, and the 
king lashed himself into a sudden frenzy, fitful 
and unreasoning, like the tantrums of a 
shrew. All truces, he declared, were at an 
end, and the Maid should go unchidden to 
the succour of Compiegne and Melun and 
Lagny-sur-Marne. 

Now at Lagny-sur-Marne there chanced to 
be a baby three days old, so grievously sick 
that many supposed it to be dead. " Verily," 
quoth Jeanne, " it looked as black as my 

85 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

coat." But she prayed to God and Mary- 
Mother, and the Httle one recovered, which 
matter was made much of at her trial. 
She set herself up for a miracle-worker, 
the judges asserted, and claimed to raise 
the dead through her glamours and 
enchantments. 

Already forebodings of evil had fallen 
athwart her spirit, like lengthening shadows 
pointing the one way, her Voices having told 
her that she would be taken by the English, 
and during Easter Week, while she stood in 
the trenches of Melun, directing the assault, 
they spoke to her yet more plainly : 
" Daughter of God," said they, " before the 
feast of Saint John at midsummer thou 
shalt be made prisoner ; but disquiet not 
thyself, our Lord will succour thee." 

Compiegne was hard pressed. South of 
the town lay forest, and north the river Oise, 
spanned by a fortified bridge, and bridge 
and town were held for Charles VII by 
Guillaume de Flavy, the Governor. Mean- 

86 



RHEIMS 

while, upon the farther bank, encamped 
the king's enemies, enough and to spare, 
Duke PhiUp himself at the village of Coudon, 
de Noyelle at Margny, John of Luxembourg 
at Clairoix, and a garrison of English at 
Venette. 

The Maid entered Compiegne from the 
south, and immediately resolved on a sortie. 
It was the 23rd of May 1430, the last day of 
her freedom, and I would she might have 
passed it in the forest, among fugitive scents 
and dimpsey shadows, where it lay all fragrant 
after the night's rain, and garrulous with 
innumerable leaves, for she ever loved the 
glorious company of trees, the goodly fellow- 
ship of flowers. But at five of the clock, in 
the clear and sparkling weather, she was 
leading her troops across the bridge, mounted 
on a dapple grey horse, her gold and scarlet 
mantle fluttering bravely in the breeze. 

She aimed her attack at the hamlet of 
Margny, and de Noyelle and his men were 
soon in full retreat towards Clairoix, when 

87 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

it happened that the EngHsh made a sally 
from Venette, upon which the rearguard of 
her army fell into a panic, and fled helter- 
skelter back to Compiegne, the enemy pur- 
suing. Jeanne strove to rally them, and 
outdid all her former feats of valour, but the 
lot was cast for the battle, and cast against 
her. As to Guillaume de Flavy, he was in 
a strait place that day, since he durst not 
use his artillery, lest he should fire on friend 
and foe alike ; accordingly he caused the 
drawbridge to be lowered and raised again in 
a twinkling, the foremost fliers once inside 
the walls. And so doing he did what seemed 
to him best, and no dishonour should sully 
him, for all that he closed his gates against 
Jeanne Dare, and shut her out from safety. 

They forced her off the highway on to marshy 
meadows, they hemmed her in, they ringed 
her round, and she had but a handful along 
with her, amongst them one of her brothers, 
and D'Aulon, her master of the horse. An 
archer in the service of Wandonne (himself 

88 



RHEIMS 

in the service of a greater, John of Luxem- 
bourg), he it was that took her prisoner, and a 
good day's work it proved for him and his, since 
the King of England presently appointed 
him a pension. But though the Maid sur- 
rendered as needs must, give her parole of 
honour she would not. " I have," said she, 
" passed my word to another." 

Tidings of the capture ran apace, and an 
unhallowed revelry broke loose in Paris 
steeples. Brazen-throated, brazen-hearted, 
the joy peals clashed and clanged, as belfry 
called to belfry, hoarse with glee, that the 
witch of the Armagnacs was taken. 

NOTES TO PART III 

Note 14, p. 62. — Witness the following prayer to Saint 
Martin, patron of Tours : " Monseigneur sainct Martin 
soit nostre advocat envers nostre doulx sauveur Jhesucrist 
qui doint bonne sante et bonne vie et longue a nostre bon 
roy Charles et la royne, . . . et a tons ceulx du sang royal 
aiant bonne voulente, et ceulx qui mauvaise I'ont Dieu les 
vueille amander tellement qu'ilz recongnoissent leur 
doicturier seignieur, Aussi vueille delivrer tons prisonniers 
du sang real qui sont es mains de noz ennemys. 
Aussi que nous puissions avoir bonne paix et union en ce 

89 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

reaulme a I'onneur et au prouffit du roy et de la chose 
publique, a la confusion et deshonneur de ses anciens 
ennemys estranges et privez." — From " Lea Beaux Miracles 
de Monseigneur sainct Martin." 

Note 15, p. 63. — Of this palace nothing now remains, 
except one tower called La Tour des Guises. 

Note 16, p. 65. — Refrain of the Virgin's Litany, sung 
at vespers. The familiar call to prayer, known as the 
evening Angelus or Ave Maria, was not in use till the 
succeeding reign, when Louis XI appointed this form of 
national intercession during his wars with Charles the 
Bold of Burgundy. 

Note 17, p. 66. — Some historians are of opinion that 
her appeal was made at Loches, and not at Tours. 

Note 18, p. 78. — An acclamation borrowed from 
Christmas, but formerly used at other seasons of rejoicing. 

Note 19, p. 79. — La pucelle — the Maid. 

Note 20, p. 80. — Twenty years later, the EngUsh still 
held the greater part of Normandy, with the fortresses of 
Picardy, Anjou, and Maine, but those of Anjou and Maine 
were shortly relinquished as the price of a marriage between 
Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI, 



90 



Part IV 
ROUEN 

" Who is this that cometh from Domremy ? Who is 
she in bloody coronation robes from Rheims ? Who is 
she that cometh . . . from walking the furnaces of Rouen ? 
This is she, the shepherd girl, counsellor that had none for 
herself, whom I choose, bishop, for yours. . . . She it 
is, bishop, that shall plead for you ; yes, bishop — she — 
when heaven and earth are silent." 

De Quincey. 

" Jeanne is grown proud, and because she 
loved bright raiment God has failed 
her." So wrote Regnault de Chartres, the 
Archbishop, when he sent word to Rheims 
of her capture. But there was still an honest 
man in France, for all he was an Archbishop, 
to wit, of Embrun. He likewise put pen to 
paper speedily, and wrote his mind to 
Charles VII in plain, homely fashion : "To 
recover this maid and raise her ransom, 
spare neither money nor price, however 

91 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

great they be, lest you incur the stain of 
a treachery most blameworthy." Moreover, 
the faithful folk of Tours wore black to 
betoken mourning, and went in procession 
from Saint Gatien's to Saint Martin's, offering 
up prayers for her deliverance ; and in songs 
and ballads she had yet other remembrancers 
that might not be silenced. (Note 21, p. 

131.) 

Now after Jeanne was taken they brought 
her first to Clairoix, and next to Beaulieu of 
Vermandois, and thence to Beaurevoir. The 
Regent, one may suppose, cherished never a 
thought at bed or board, save how to get 
her into his own possession, and as she 
had crowned the Valois king, he resolved to 
attaint her of witchcraft, that he might make 
void the crowning. But he knew well 
enough if he desired to have her, he must 
pay for her, since by right of battle she was 
reckoned the prisoner of John of Luxembourg, 
vassal to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip mis- 
named the Good. So he set about levying 

92 



ROUEN 

a ransom which should secure her to the 
EngHsh : " Jehanne la pucelle," as he styled 
her, " reported a witch, leader of the hosts of 
the Dauphin," and when the gold was come 
by, sent one Pierre Cauchon to treat with 
his allies. This same Cauchon, Bishop of 
Beauvais, had gotten his see from the 
Burgundians, but the victorious Armagnacs 
had driven him forth, for which cause he 
bore a grudge against Jeanne Dare that 
rankled in the wicked heart of him ; the 
English, besides, promised him the arch- 
bishopric of Rouen if he would be their cat's 
paw, and pull them their chestnuts deftly 
out of the fire. 

The Maid meanwhile tarried a close prisoner 
at Beaurevoir, yet was she honourably treated 
as befits a prisoner of war, in the care of 
two noble ladies, her namesakes, Jeanne de 
Bethune the wife of Luxembourg, and Jeanne 
his aunt, who used her with compassion 
and all fair courtesies. But she knew no 
heartsease day nor night for grieving over 

93 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Compiegne, since the Burgundians had 
vowed to put its people to the sword from 
seven years old and upwards. So she deter- 
mined to hazard her escape, and took the 
bedding in her turret chamber, fashioning 
it into a make-shift rope, and letting herself 
out by the window. But the rope gave way ; 
yet though she fell full sixty feet not a bone 
was broken, only she was retaken hurt and 
bruised, and neither ate nor drank for several 
days. Now this that she had attempted, 
she attempted it contrary to the counsel of 
Saint Catherine, who bade her bear all things 
joyfully, seeing God would succour Compiegne 
before Martinmas, the which came true. 
Later her judges fastened on the matter, and 
insisted she had sought to end her life. 

Philip of Burgundy and John of Luxem- 
bourg knew not what way to turn, for 
time pressed, and money was no commoner 
than usual. At first they never doubted 
that the French king would offer ransom, 
more especially as he held two prisoners of 

94 



ROUEN 

note, Talbot and Sir John Chandos, the better 
to drive his bargain. Yet the woods lay wilted 
in the summer heat, and the stubble fields 
lay ravished of their harvest, and still not a 
whisper of a ransom stole from beyond the 
Loire ; while all the time Pierre Cauchon 
begged and threatened, the blood-money in 
his hand, and the swords of Merry England at 
his back. So then Duke Philip would wait no 
longer, but took the price, and paid it over to 
the lord of Luxembourg, ten thousand livres 
in full, which was the sum appointed as a 
royal ransom ; a royal ransom for the little 
shepherdess. 

Her enemies moved her hither and thither, 
fearing a rescue, though indeed they might 
have spared themselves their labour, since 
Charles VII, frost-bound in doubts and 
dreads, stirred not a step and lifted not a 
finger. It was November when the Maid 
reached Arras, and from Arras they brought 
her to Crotoy Castle by the sea, a melancholy 
place enough, with nothing for her eyes to 

95 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

rest upon save dipping gulls and pallid weedy 
sands, and nothing in her ears the live-long 
day but the breach of the wintry surf. Yet 
even here she was not all forlorn, seeing she 
bears record that the archangel Michael 
appeared to her at Crotoy. From thence 
they took her to Saint Valery, and by ship 
to Dieppe, and from Dieppe to Rouen. 

Now Rouen was a stronghold of the English 
power, the Kings of England having reigned 
as Norman Dukes three hundred years and 
over. Young Henry VI was present in the 
town, and truly it was no less his capital 
than London, maybe more so, the heart of 
that great Angevin empire which linked the 
Firth of Forth to the snow-mitred Pyrenees. 
Rouen had not lacked for stirring scenes 
when the long keels of the Norsemen were 
spied upon the Seine, or the gallant vessel, 
" Notre Dame de Bon Voyage," returned 
from distant Africa, carrying pepper and 
and ivory and blinking gold ; but never 
had it been more deeply stirred than 

96 



ROUEN 

when it knew the Maid within its walls. 
(Did she mark the coat of arms, I wonder, 
emblazoned on the gateway ? The lamb, 
that to her was like to prove a wolf.) 

Doubtless some sit in judgment upon 
traitorous Rouen because it played the Valois 
false. Well, they shall hear how the Valois 
dealt by Rouen. At Lammastide in the month 
of August King Harry V had laid siege to 
the city, but before he got his will and took 
possession, the ground was stark with January 
frosts. Midway between the town and the 
leaguer of the enemy encamped a horde of 
miserable wretches whom the Rouennais 
dared not feed, since what meagre provision 
they had must go to the garrison, themselves 
mere skeletons, their lean bones chattering 
in their coats of mail. Wherefore the folk 
beyond the walls grew crazed with famine, 
and many rushed upon the English watch- 
fires, and upon the English spears, to make 
an end. From time to time amid this 
lamentable host a child was born, and raised 
G 97 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

to the battlements that a priest might christen 
it, and lower it again, poor little one, into the 
gulf of torment whence it came. Only on 
Christmas Day, for remembrance of the mercy 
which befell at Christmas-tide, King Harry 
sent meat and drink to the perishing, yet the 
gracious hours once past, he hardened his 
heart anew, since the Plantagenets were a 
cruel breed, from father to son. 

Now in their extremity the Rouennais 
appealed again and again to the royalty of 
France, but they appealed in vain. True, 
messages and promises came in plenty ; of 
succour and deliverance never a sign. So 
when at last the town surrendered and its 
honour bit the dust, the burghers vowed 
deep vengeance on the Armagnacs and upon 
all the house of Valois, whose kingly word 
was brittle as vile earthenware. Nor had they 
long to wait, for in the coming of the Maid 
they saw their opportunity, and marked 
their victim. 

The trial was directed by Pierre Cauchon, 

98 



ROUEN 

Bishop of Beauvais, on the pretext that 
Compiegne lay within his diocese, and 
such as knew that it lay in the diocese of 
Soissons, had wit enough to keep this know- 
ledge to themselves. A prisoner of the 
Church, to be examined for heresy and 
witchcraft, Jeanne should have been taken 
to the tolerable Church prisons in the Rue 
Saint Romain, hard by the cathedral ; but 
instead they brought her to a fortress in the 
Place Bouvreuil, known as the fort of Philip 
Augustus. At the rearmost entry were a 
stairway and a dungeon underneath it, a 
low dark cell with only a plank bed to rest 
upon ; here, day and night, the Maid was 
chained to a beam, and day and night was 
guarded by a handful of men-at-arms in 
the service of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of 
Warwick. (Note 22, p. 131.) 

Soon as the little King of England had 
signed the needful order, committing her for 
trial, the Bishop set to work to pack his 
court, which took him a couple of months and 

99 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

more, since even hostile Rouen still held brave 
men and true. Of such sort were Nicholas de 
Houppeville and Jean Lohier, lawyers both 
of them, and both of them would have it that 
the trial was illegal. For one thing, said 
Lohier, it ought not to take place in a military 
stronghold, bringing the suasion of armed 
force to bear upon the matter ; the King of 
France was party to the quarrel, and should 
be duly represented ; the accused besides 
was under age, and further she must he given 
the benefit of counsel. "It is easy to see," 
quoth Beauvais, " on which foot he limps. 
By Saint John, the fellow shall make no odds. 
We will continue our fine trial, our heau 
proces ; we will finish as we have begun." 
And he sent to arrest him, but Lohier had 
fled the town. Nicholas de Houppeville, 
for his part, said that the trial at Poitiers 
should suffice, and thanks to this plain 
speaking he found himself in prison. 

Others, however, proved more complaisant. 
True, the cathedral canons made a protest, 

100 



ROUEN 

but withdrew it fast enough when the Bishop 
hinted at a loss of rations. Lemaitre, the 
Vice-Inquisitor, he too was loath to meddle 
in so black a business, yet he too yielded 
presently, and sat among the judges. There 
were near upon a hundred of them, 
Dominicans mostly, to match trained wits 
against a peasant girl, some better, some 
worse, but cowards one and all. 

First came the President : " Pierre," thus 
he styled himself, " by divine mercy Bishop 
of Beauvais," and the divine mercy mag- 
nanimously suffered him to prate his fill, 
as is its wont. Next Nicholas Loiseleur, 
who wrought a tidy little spy-hole in the 
wall of the Maid's prison, and eavesdropped 
her confessions ; moreover, he would visit 
her disguised, pretending to be of her own 
country, from the marches of Lorraine, and 
seeking to entrap her in her talk. There 
was Thomas Courcelles, with his meek 
downcast eyes and tiger's heart ; there 
were Pierre Maurice and Martin Ladvenu, 

lOI 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Nicholas Midi and Guillaume Erard, Massieu 
and d'Estivet and Isambard de la Pierre. 

One Manchon had been appointed as 
Recorder, and afterwards, when Jeanne was 
burnt, he grew so horribly disturbed in 
spirit that he bought a missal book out of the 
money paid him for his services, and prayed 
most diligently on behalf of her soul. Truly 
no monstrous beast at the sea-bottom could 
prove a stranger sight to look upon than many 
a Christian conscience ! Yet this much may 
be said in his favour, he recorded faithfully, 
while the English clerks set down such matter 
as was to their liking, and garbled the rest. 

On the 2ist of February, in the fortress 
chapel, the trial began, but after that day 
it was held in, the Ornament Room, at the end 
of the great hall, since Beauvais, holy man, 
would not brook a hubbub in the sanctuary. 
Jeanne sat by a table, with Manchon the 
Recorder, and behind a curtain were the 
two English clerks ; English sentries guarded 
the door (of whom one, the brave fellow, 

102 



ROUEN 

saluted her as she entered), while over against 
the doorway, row upon row, tier upon tier, 
wheresoever you might look — the black 
Dominican habit. They had her clipped 
and caged at last, God's dove among the 
crows. 

When the Maid appeared before her judges, 
they required of her an oath to speak truth 
concerning religion. " Yet it may well be," she 
said, " that you will ask me some things on 
which I shall tell you the truth, and others on 
which I shall not tell it you." Thus she 
gave them fair warning ; for there is a 
modesty in matters spiritual, and she was 
little minded to strip bare her soul, nor would 
she so much as repeat a Pater Noster in the 
hearing of her judges. She implored of them 
that she might attend mass, and that Church- 
men of her own party might be present, but 
Beauvais cut her short. He was full of all 
kindness and piety, he said, desiring only 
her return to the paths of righteousness, 
pained above measure by her fall from grace, 

103 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

and more especially by the spectacle of her 
hair, tailU en rond, after the manner of a 
boy, which was most shocking, and clearly 
contrary to the will of God. 

During the months of February and March 
there were six public examinations in the 
Ornament Room, and nine private examina- 
tions in the prison. Meanwhile, from lack 
of air, the Maid fell sick, and even though 
the fever was upon her a chosen company of 
judges thronged her cell and plied her with 
questions. "Good sirs," she pleaded, "if I 
come to die, I pray you bury me in hallowed 
ground ; yet if you will not, I commit myself 
unto my Lord." A marvellous great saying, 
truly, when scarce a man of the Middle Ages 
but thought his soul clean perished altogether, 
lacking the Church's blessing on his grave. 
As for the Earl of Warwick, he bade the 
physician cure her speedily, lest dying she 
should cheat the stake, and this he said in her 
presence. 

The accusations brought against her 
104 



ROUEN 

smack of the mad-house. She had trysted 
with the Fair Folk of the magic Middle World, 
honouring them in heathen songs and dances, 
and delved by moonlight for the mandrake 
root, after the fashion of witches : She did 
not make known her visions to a priest : It 
was unmaidenly of her to bear arms : (" Yet 
as to women's proper work," she said, " there 
is many another woman to do that ; howbeit 
in spinning and sewing I fear no goodwife in 
Rouen,") She caused grave scandal putting 
on male dress : (It served for camp and battle, 
she replied, and served her still to guard her 
modesty. " Nevertheless," she added, " my 
dress in no sort weighs upon my soul. Let 
me hear mass, and if it please you, I will wear 
a woman's smock and hood.") At Orleans 
she had been idolatrously worshipped by the 
mob : (" The poor grateful people," said she, 
" did indeed kiss my hands, but when I could, 
I hindered them.") During the coronation 
she vaingloriously displayed her banner : 
(" It shared the perils," she flashed out, " and 

105 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

had a right to share in the rejoicing.") At 
Lagny-sur-Marne she claimed to raise the 
dead : She dealt profanely, by attacking 
Paris on a holy day, and marking some of 
her military despatches with a cross : She 
attempted her own life at Beaurevoir : (This 
she denied, admitting the while how she 
disobeyed her Saints, and received prompt 
penance through the hurt she did herself in 
falling from the turret.) 

Touching the " king's secret " she remained 
loyally silent : " The more you constrain me 
to swear," said she, " the less I will tell you." 
Yet of her Voices she at times spoke freely. 
There was never a day but her dear Saints 
came to the castle, and with them a sweet 
and pleasant hght, though she could not 
always hear what they were saying, because 
of the laughter and the pother of the guards. 
How did she know they were good spirits ? 
By the good doctrine and comfort that 
they gave her. Three things had she asked 
of them in prayer ; aid for the French, 

io6 



ROUEN 

deliverance from prison, her soul's salva- 
tion ; and they answered on this wise : 
" Have no care of thy martyrdom, since thou 
wilt be released with glorious victory, and 
surely come to the kingdom of Paradise." 

Again and again the judges questioned 
her, oftenest concerning the Bright Folk of 
the fatal Arbre Fee, her male attire, and the 
nature of her visions. These last they made 
light of ; she had been fasting, they main- 
tained, when she communed with angels in 
the orchard at high noon. Yet Jeanne denied 
it resolutely, and who could know but she ? 
Sometimes they talked all together, some- 
times they darted from point to point, seeking 
to entangle her in words. They asked her 
whether she were in a state of grace, and 
should she say no, they had condemned her 
out of her own mouth, and should she say 
yes, they had held her guilty of presumption. 
Wherefore her prudent answer is a thing to 
wonder at — " If I am not, I pray God make 
me so, and if I am, I pray God keep me so." 

107 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

They inquired of her who was the true Pope 
(a perilous pitfall in the days of the Great 
Schism), and swift as a weaver's shuttle came 
her baffling question in reply, " Are there 
then two Popes ? " Was not her capture 
a token of the divine wrath ? " Since God 
has suffered me to be captured, it is for 
the best." Does the Lord love the French 
and hate the English ? "Of the love or 
hate of God toward the English I know 
nothing, but this I know, they will be driven 
out of France. In seven years shall they 
lose Paris, and I am sore vexed it is deferred 
so long." 

Of the angels, Jeanne said, she had caused 
them to be pictured on her standards after 
such sort as she commonly saw them in 
church windows, but not as they appeared 
to herself, and how they did appear to her 
she refused to tell, nor would she answer vile 
or silly questions touching the nature of 
their raiment and their hair. Often indeed 
her replies were like the turning of a key in 

io8 



ROUEN 

a lock : "I am not free to say. It does 
not bear upon the case. Ask me no more. 
Pass on." (Note 23, p. 131.) Or if her 
persecutors repeated themselves : "I have 
told you that already. Look in your own 
reports, and you shall find it." 

Day after day brought floods of talk, bitter 
and barren as the Dead Sea, concerning her sub- 
mission to the Church, but Beauvais and his 
hireling monks were not the Church, and well 
she knew it. "I believe," said she, " in the 
Church that is here below, and will maintain 
it with all my power ; yet for my words and 
deeds, I refer me only to God, my Creator, 
whom I love from my heart. He is a good 
master ; to him I look in everything and 
to none other." " Do your Voices then bid 
you disobey the Church ? " " Surely no, 
but God must be served first. I would sooner 
die than renounce what I have done, seeing 
I came to the King of France by command of 
my Lord and of the Church Triumphant ; 
to that Church I submit." 

109 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Now among the judges there were some 
who wished her well, and one day Isambard 
de la Pierre put in a kindly word. A great 
Council, so he told her, was being held at 
Bale, where Churchmen of all nations had 
assembled, and of her own party not a few ; 
would she submit her cause to such a Council ? 
But immediately Beauvais flew into a passion, 
and gobbled like an angry turkey-cock. 
" Hold your tongue in the devil's name ! " 
he cried, " or you shall have more to drink 
than you bargain for." Which was the 
Bishop's pretty fashion of saying that he 
meant to drown him, and Isambard fell 
silent. 

Massieu also sought to do her a good turn, 
and fared no better. Between the prison 
and the Ornament Room lay a little chapel, 
and he would sometimes let her go aside to 
pray there. But d'Estivet, the watchful 
and malignant, discovered this, and put a 
stop to it, since he was hand and glove with 
Beauvais. " God knows," said Massieu, 

no 



ROUEN 

" what will be the end ; yet for my part I 
see nothing in her save goodness and honour." 
Upon which d'Estivet bade him take heed, 
lest haply he find himself in a dungeon, where 
never sun nor moon should lighten him. 

Tardily towards the close of March the 
Maid was offered counsel, but she refused it, 
saying she would not depart from the counsel 
of her God. Then an April Easter came and 
went, and brought no boon of swelling buds 
or song-birds, and brought no blessings of 
the paschal altar : " Yet our Lord," said 
she to her judges, " is able to make me hear 
mass in spite of you." The examinations 
were now over, and the court withdrew to 
the Chapelle des Ordres, which lay at the 
north corner of the Bishop's palace (as was 
very fitting, since in legend and story the 
north is ever deemed the devil's side, and is 
the side of darkness). And there they sat 
consulting for near upon a month. 

It was early in May when the judges 
debated whether or no they should put 

III 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

Jeanne to the torture, " and by this means 
restore her to the knowledge of the truth, 
and procure her salvation, gravely imperilled 
through sundry lying devices " — or in other 
words to wring from woman's weakness a 
confession of witchcraft and heresy. Indeed 
they showed her the torture-chamber, and 
the rack with the levers made ready, but 
she no more flinched at the sight of them 
than she flinched at the sight of battery and 
crossbow. " Were you to tear me limb from 
limb," quoth she, " I would not say other- 
wise than I have said, and if I did, I should 
afterwards affirm that you had wrested it 
out of me by force." Yet though the torture 
had been mooted, the more part of the judges 
pronounced against it, whether from mercy 
or policy who can tell ? But Thomas Cour- 
celles was favourable, and so was Loiseleur 
the spy. 

Upon the 23rd of May Jeanne came for 
the last time into the Ornament Room, where 
Pierre Maurice read aloud to her a final ex- 

112 



ROUEN 

hortation : "My very dear friend, ponder 
well over all that has been said. We, the 
Lord Bishop of Beauvais, the Lord Vicar of 
the Inquistion, and other Doctors, so tender 
is our care of your salvation, have admonished 
you both publicly and privately, in honour 
and reverence for God and the law of Jesus 
Christ, to quiet our conscience and suppress 
a grievous scandal. Suffer not yourself to 
be separated from the Lord, choose not the 
way of damnation with the devils, enemies 
of God that daily set their wits to work 
for the troubling of, mankind, assuming 
the likenesses of angels and saints, as may 
be proven by the lives of the Fathers. If 
such spirits have appeared to you, credit 
them not. When our Lord confided the 
governance of the Church to the blessed 
apostle Peter and his successors, he bade us 
reject any that might come in Christ's name, 
proffering but their own word in support of 
their mission. You ought never to have 
believed those who, you affirm, came to you, 

H 113 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

and we too, we ought not to believe you, 
since our Lord expressly commanded the 
contrary. If a soldier placed under your 
king's dominion had suddenly risen and said, 
' I will not obey the king ; I will not submit 
either to him or his officers,' surely you would 
have thought that this man should be con- 
demned ? Yet what can you plead for 
yourself, resisting the officers of Christ ? " 
And the like foolish cant in plenty. More- 
over, she was summoned to appear upon the 
morrow in the graveyard of Saint Ouen, there 
to abjure in sight of all good people, or, if 
she would not do so, there to burn. 

The Maid of Orleans, the world knows very 
well, was burnt in the old market, which 
bears to this hour the name of the Vieux 
Marche, and it is a sad place enough ; but an 
even sadder, surely, is the angle of Saint 
Ouen's church, between the nave and the 
hither wall of the south transept, as you face 
the westering sun. The church was still in 
building, and the fair tower men call the 

114 



ROUEN 

" Crown of Normandy " not yet reared, when 
on the Thursday in Whitsun-week there was 
set a platform underneath the eaves ; and 
here in state, below a canopy, were Beauvais 
and eight Abbots, with above three score 
friars, and the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester, 
that was esteemed a mighty man in his day ; 
half a million sterling had he lent to the English 
Crown, and paid the besiegers of Orleans out 
of his private purse. 

Near to these great ones was another 
platform ; no canopy against the sweltering 
heat, but a stake, and piles of firewood ready 
laid, and Jeanne Dare sat beside them, 
with Loiseleur for company. From end to 
end the graveyard of Saint Ouen was guarded 
close by English soldiery ; a boding sultri- 
ness hung in the air, and farther off it 
thundered, as though a race of giants played 
at ninepins in the hills. 

Since Beauvais was Master of the Revels 
the thing must be done in due order, and 
accordingly Guillaume Erard rose up to preach 

115 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

a sermon. He had very little liking for the 
task, and privily told his friends that he 
would to God he were in Flanders ; never- 
theless he did what was required of him. 
" In the name of the Lord, Amen," quoth he, 
and dubbed the Maid a homicidal viper, 
warning all present to beware of her heresies, 
which resembled a horrible contagion of 
leprosy in the mystical body of Christ's 
Church. 

" Answer him boldly, this preacher," 
said the Voices, " for verily he is a false 
preacher." Yet there was another counsellor 
at hand, more's the pity. If she would 
but recant, urged Nicholas Loiseleur, and 
submit herself to Holy Church, she should 
be freed from irons, and hear mass, in 
a decent good prison, with women to tend 
her as was fit ; and what this might mean to 
her, none knows, since none knows rightly 
what she had endured from John Grey, 
captain, and his merry men all. 

Jeanne looked about her doubtfully. 
ii6 



ROUEN 

Would it not prove a hideous dream, these 
myriad eyes, and the lean grim stake which 
stood erect and waiting ? Her Voices had 
promised her deliverance, release with glorious 
victory ; hark, was not that the thunder of 
artillery, or was it only the artillery of 
thunder ? Where were her generals. La Hire 
and the Bastard and the pretty Duke ? Where 
Jean de Metz, and Bertrand de Poulangy, her 
brothers-in-arms on the pleasant ride to 
Chinon ? Where in God's name was the 
king whom she had crowned ? Panic- 
stricken the manhood of France held aloof, 
and all the running waters of the world shall 
not suffice to wash out that dishonour. 

" Sign ! Sign ! " hissed Loiseleur, " and 
save your soul." He thrust a paper into her 
hands, a little folded paper, bearing some 
half a dozen lines of writing, scarce longer 
than a Pater Noster, as the lookers-on bore 
witness. And this same devil's flyleaf Jeanne 
Dare signed. She had no penmanship, but 
made a mark, and for her name her hand 

117 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

was guided by the King of England's secre- 
tary. " Please God, you have done a good 
day's work," quoth Loiseleur. 

Memorable it is that as she wrote she 
smiled, a fleeting eerie smile, perplexing to 
her enemies at the time, perplexing to her 
lovers ever since. There are folk who go 
and loiter among the pictures of the Louvre, 
and know not what to make of the smile 
of Monna Lisa, and there are folk who 
loiter in the Pitti, where the Madonna del 
Granduca smiles strangely to herself. But 
these are only painted mysteries when all 
is said and done, and the small secret smile 
which troubled Rouen remains the strangest 
of the three. 

Now at this moment a tumult arose, with 
such a hurly-burly and bandying to and 
fro of cries and stones, that no man rightly 
understood his neighbour. For the Earls of 
Warwick and Stafford were impatient to be 
gone and raise the siege of Louvier, but dared 
not throw a lance or fire a shot until the 

ii8 



ROUEN 

Maid was dead, and when they and their 
soldiery beheld the signing, a new fear knocked 
suddenly upon their hearts ; the girl had 
obtained the mercy of the Church, she would 
escape the fire. Herein they did the Bishop 
wrong, for his schemes were neatly laid, all 
cut and dry like the faggots on the scaffold ; 
her abjuration should in no way profit her, 
only dishonour her in the sight of men, which 
end once gained — ^well, well, these slow-witted 
Englishmen would see that he was not the 
bungler they supposed. The wench should 
burn sure enough, and burn as a relapsed 
heretic, what is more ; but they must give 
him time. 

Yet for the present, and to quiet the uproar, 
her sentence was read in haste : life-long 
imprisonment, with the bread of sorrow and 
the water of affliction, in order that she 
might bewail her faults here rather than 
hereafter. Then by command of Beauvais 
the arch promise-breaker, they took her back 
to the dungeon whence she came, and laid her 

119 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

again in irons, and John Grey and his merry 
men still guarded her day and night. 

As for the full and formal recantation, 
which Pierre Cauchon flourished at the judges 
in his glee, it would run into some fifty lines 
of a closely printed book, and confessed all 
manner of sorceries, and promised all manner 
of amendment, only it bore no signature. 
Yet the cheat of the small folded paper 
served — Rouen had seen her fumbling with 
a pen, and that was proof enough. 

Jeanne herself during the days which 
followed seemed like a scared bewildered 
child, uttering her protests to stone walls 
and stonier hearts. " My Voices tell me of 
the great pity it is, this treason I have 
committed, but what was in the writing I 
mistook ; I mistook the meaning of the word 
' abjure.' That I signed, I signed through 
fear of the fire, damning my soul to save my 
life." And again, " If the judges wish, I 
will take a woman's dress ; for the rest, I 
can do no more." And again, " I never 

120 



ROUEN 

purposed to deny my visions. Whether 
they were good spirits or whether they were 
evil, they really did appear to me." Truly 
Beauvais and his gang have accomplished 
their fiend's errand to the full, forasmuch 
as they have made her doubt her Saints. 

Trinity Sunday passed, and on the Monday 
it was noised abroad that she had worn man's 
dress, and small blame to her, since the guards 
concealed her woman's smock and would not 
yield it up, though she pleaded with them 
until noon. 

The joyful tidings of her relapse were 
straightway carried to the Bishop ; she was 
forsworn, she had taken again the accursed 
male habit, contrary to her oath of abjuration, 
an abjuration she had neither seen nor signed, 
but no matter. Beauvais, so it chanced, was 
hastening from the fortress when he met the 
Earl of Warwick on the threshold. " Be 
of good cheer," he said in English (he prided 
himself mightily talking an aUen tongue), 
" Be of good cheer. It is finished." 

121 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

On Wednesday the 30th of May, in the 
year of grace 143 1, there was wrought a 
deed with as Httle grace to season it as 
was ever heard tell of in any christened 
realm, for on that day, both Church and 
State together, they burnt Jeanne Dare 
alive. Oh market-place of Rouen on the 
Seine, when the windless summer night is 
dark about you, forget the shrilly chaffer of 
your booths, and call to mind the thing done 
in you long since, the which has made you 
memorable ! 

Before the morning red was up, or the 
larks had sung matins in the fields beyond the 
fortress, there came into the prison Maitre 
Pierre Maurice and Brother Martin Ladvenu, 
bearers of ill tidings, though to do them justice 
bearers sorely unwilling, and told her how by 
midday she should burn. Pierre Cauchon 
he too rose betimes, since to him it was a 
joyous morn, a morn long looked for. He 
had worked diligently close upon a year, 
and now his archbishopric lay in sight. But 

122 



ROUEN 

first he must needs admonish the condemned, 
and he was no weakhng, heaven be praised, 
nor the sort that fears to see a woman cry. 

The Maid shrank weeping into a corner as 
he entered. " Bishop," she said, "I die 
through you." 

" Nay, have patience," he replied, " you 
die because you broke faith with us, and 
persisted in your former evil doings." 

" This would not have happened," pursued 
the accusing voice, *' if I had been among 
fit companions. I summon you to meet me 
before God." And at that he turned and 
went out quickly. It is a tryst which none 
will envy him. 

Already the passing-bell tolled overhead, 
like the approach of death made audible, 
yet Jeanne when she was ware of it said only, 
" I appeal to God, the great judge," and 
besought the last Communion to her comfort. 
The Bishop gave permission, but he sent the 
holy bread most slovenly in a napkin, not 
beseeming the memorial of the Lord's passion, 

123 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

for little he recked of an insult to the blessed 
rite, if by this means he could insult Jeanne 
also. Then Martin Ladvenu was angry, and 
bade bring stole and tapers, and they carried 
the consecrated Host into the cell, with 
chanting and lights and due reverence, as 
was fitting. 

" Ah, Maitre Pierre," quoth she, " where 
shall I be to-night ? " 

" Have you not firm hope ? " Pierre 
Maurice answered. 

" Yes, verily ; God willing, I shall be in 
Paradise." The terrors of the abyss were 
beaten back, fear of death and fear of hell 
scattered like grizzly dreams ; she served a 
good master, she had said, and for the mortal 
weakness of one hour he did in no wise cast 
her out. 

As it drew near the time appointed, her 
hair was cut away ; true, the judges professed 
to be scandalised when she wore it short of 
her own free will, but now they themselves 
took the shears in hand. Such is the logic 

124 



ROUEN 

of monks. At nine of the clock they brought 
her forth ; she that freed France bound fast 
with cords, she that did crown its king having 
a mock mitre set upon her hand, and these 
words written, " Relapsed heretic. Apostate. 
Idolater." 

Now when the cart was lumbering slowly 
from the Place Bouvreuil to the Vieux 
Marche, a strange thing happened, and a 
sure proof it is how there is never a soul so 
vile but the grace of God may take it un- 
awares, sudden and beautiful as moonrise. 
For a man pushed past the soldiers, and 
caught hold of the tumbril's edge : " For- 
give ! " cried Nicholas Loiseleur, " Forgive ! " 

He had tricked her, hounded her to death, 
and no thanks to him that the rack had not 
been added to the burning ; yet she forgave 
him. Her heart was a mercy-seat which 
none approached in vain, her wounded 
enemy upon the battle-field, or the miserable 
priest who betrayed her. 

All through the mild May night the crowds 
125 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

had flocked to Rouen, flocked as to a fair, 
and now the curious thousands thronged the 
market, and peopled roof and balcony and 
casement. Again beneath a canopy of state 
sat Beauvais with his friars, and a scaffold 
reared itself to giddy heights, a gaunt, 
terrifying thing of wood and plaster, the 
openings deftly fashioned for the passing of 
air-currents to and fro ; while at the head 
of the stake a placard told the story of the 
condemned, and told it thus : " Jeanne, 
self-styled the Maid, liar, mischief-maker, 
abuser of the people, diviner, superstitious, 
blasphemer of God, presumptuous, false to 
the faith of Christ, boaster, idolater, cruel, 
dissolute, an invoker of devils, apostate, 
schismatic, heretic." 

They set Jeanne on a platform close at 
hand, and Maitre Nicholas Midi fell to his 
preaching forthwith . Poor little maid, she had 
heard her fill of sermons, and to be named a 
corrupt branch of the True Vine moved her 
not at all. There was no hope of rescue now, 

126 




"'forgive!' cried NICHOLAS LOISELEUR " 



ROUEN 

nor haply any need, since she and her Brothers 
of Paradise were reconciled. Dream-like 
the sights and sounds about her ; the coats 
of mail that glinted in the sunshine, the 
cavalry horses champing the bit and stirring 
restlessly upon the cobble-stones. 

But Warwick and Stafford with their 
attendant lords had not assembled to listen 
to a sermon, and presently their patience 
snapped asunder. " Priests ! " cried one, 
"will you make us dine here ? " This was 
enough for Pierre Cauchon, who would not on 
his soul offend the English. " Jeanne," said 
he, " we can no longer protect you. Go in 
peace." Whereat was pronounced the final 
condemnation which surrendered all heretics 
to the secular law, praying it to " deal 
gently with them, both in life and limb." 
(O Christ ! O Church of Christ !) 

As. for the secular judge, who was an 
Englishman, he appeared uneasy, like to 
Pontius Pilate shifting blame : " Thine own 
nation and the chief priests have delivered 

127 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

thee unto me." Indeed, so much disquieted 
was he, that he forgot to utter the death 
sentence, saying only, " Take her away ! " 
And the bailiffs took her. 

Then first she broke silence. " Whatever 
I have done, good or evil, my king is no wise 
answerable." (And you, Charles of Valois, 
when a score of years were come and gone, and 
you rode in state through Rouen market, did 
you catch an echo of those words ? Did the 
festive garlands change to smoke wreaths 
overhead, and quiver like beseeching spectral 
hands of the child whom you abandoned to 
the fire ?) With a light step she trod the fatal 
ladder, lightly as she had trodden the scaling 
ladders of Les Tourelles and Jargeau ; it is 
the enemy's last stronghold. Maid of Orleans 
— take it by assault. " Va, va, fille de De, 
je serai a ton aide." 

The executioner and his henchman, scarlet 
figures of ill-omen, set torches to the faggots 
from below, and the fire burst upwards, 
breathing hot and horribly. Brother Martin 

128 



ROUEN 

Ladvenu had lingered by her side, yet now 
she bade him look to his own safety and 
begone. Then, knowing that soon she 
would pass those flaming gateways into 
silence, she flung her last, abiding testimony 
to generations unborn. " My Voices were 
of God," she cried ; " they have never 
deceived me." 

An English man-at-arms fastened two 
sprigs together cross-wise, and these she 
accepted thankfully ; moreover, the great 
cross from the neighbouring church of Saint 
Sauveur was brought and reared in view : 
" For," said she, " keep it ever in my sight 
until the end." All Rouen strained to catch 
her dying words, and heard her call again 
and yet again upon the name of Jesus the 
Redeemer. Despite the drifting fumes and 
writhing flame, God send she saw her angels 
closing round her, divinely clear as when 
she saw them first in the little apple-garth 
at Domremy. The dense smoke drew a 
veil ; why seek to Hft it ? In heaven was 
I 129 



THE MAID MARVELLOUS 

sung " Te Deum laudamus " for one released 
with glorious victory, and in Rouen people 
went home to their dinners. 

Late that same night the executioner, 
having the looks of a demented man, came 
knocking at the gates of the Dominican 
priory, and told the brethren how he must 
visit shrine after shrine, praying God's pardon 
for the day's work. Wild stories flew about 
the streets ; a dove had risen skyward from 
the piteous ashes ; the Lord's Name flared 
emblazoned in the fire. " I would," quoth 
one, and he was of the number of her judges, 
" that my soul were such as I believe the 
soul of this maid to be." " We are lost," 
said another ; " we have burnt a saint." 

Jeanne Dare had never a grave at all, 
seeing men threw her ashes into the river, 
but when the Bishop of Beauvais came to die, 
he was laid in a carven tomb, as fine as you 
please. Yet though the Maid of Orleans has 
no grave, she does not want for an epitaph, 
and one may read it in the " Book of 

130 



ROUEN 

Wisdom " : We fools accounted her life 
madness, and her end to be without honour : / 
how is she numbered among the children of 
God, and her lot is among the saints ! 

NOTES TO PART IV 

Note 21, p. 92. — Such as : 

" Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys 
Harembourges, qui tint le Mayne, 
Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine 
Qu'Anglais bruslerent a Rouen ; 
Ou sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine ? 
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan ? " 

Note 22, p, 99. — Father-in-law to Warwick the 
Kingmaker. 

Note 23, p. 109. — Her famous and reiterated " Passez 
outre." 



131 



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